Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Pupils face 200-mile round trip for dental check-up

Post Thumbnail

Schoolchildren in Sutherland are making round trips of more than 200 miles to see a dentist because of “staffing issues” manning a mobile service.

The row follows the decision by health bosses to put the mobile NHS service “on hold” without notice.

Pupils from as far afield as Durness, Scourie and Kinlochbervie are now being forced to travel either to Lairg or Inverness for NHS dental care.

Kinlochbervie High School head teacher Graeme Smart has expressed concern that pupils and staff were having to take whole days off school in order to attend appointments.

Highland Council’s Sutherland committee has now put the issue at the top of its agenda and is to raise its concern directly with NHS Highland’s director of public health.

North, west and central Sutherland ward councillor Hugh Morrison said people who did not have their own transport, and could not take time off work, were effectively being denied dental treatment.

But NHS managers say the mobile service has not been withdrawn but “put on hold” because of “staffing issues”.

The mobile dental unit previously visited Kinlochbervie every six months, initially treating both adults and children, but in latter years concentrating on children only.

But the mobile unit has not been seen in the area since before the school holidays, with school and parents told informally that it had been withdrawn.

Mr Smart said pupils had since been taking entire days of school to travel to dental clinics in Inverness.

It is a 207-mile round trip from Durness to Inverness and 188 miles return journey from Kinlochbervie to Inverness.

Mr Smart said: “The big issue for us is that the children and members of staff now have to take a whole day off to go to the dentist whereas previously they would be out of school for around 20 minutes.

“Pupils are losing a considerable amount of school time.”

Meanwhile Mr Morrison said: “On the education front, the big issue from the north and west areas is the pulling out of the mobile dentist which used to visit Kinlochbervie High School and check the children in all four schools.

“Now it seems the children have to go to Lairg or Inverness to get these checks done.

“That is all good and well if your parents have a car and can take time off work, but not everybody can do that. And it is also a day off school.”

A spokesman said: “NHS Highland did not communicate efficiently with the head teacher, for which we apologise.

“We will be in touch with the head teacher in due course.

“It is important to stress that the service has not been withdrawn, but remains on hold due to staffing pressures.”