And contractors, Robertson Construction, handed over the keys for the £1.2 million facility to NHS Highland today (Monday January 16). The new clinic has three dental surgeries and a soft clinic room to provide oral health education.
Currently the NHS Highland Salaried Dental Service offers the only access to dental services on the island at a single-surgery clinic in Dunvegan Health Centre and a two-surgery temporary clinic in Bayfield, Portree.
The Portree team will relocate to the new building at the end of this month and the new clinic will open its doors to patients on Monday January 30, with an official opening ceremony planned for early March.
Recruitment of dentists to rural locations has been challenging, however, a full time dentist joined the team in April last year to fill a long term vacancy and a third dentist starts part time in March 2012.
The Skye and Lochalsh waiting list currently stands at 2,244 and, once the new dentist is in post, NHS Highland will be able to offer some of these patients access to NHS dental care, starting with those who have waited the longest.
Portree dentist Graham Smith, who cut the first turf when work started on site in June of last year, said: “Our team is very excited at the prospect of working in this new purpose built clinic. We are very much looking forward to the move."
Mid Highland Community Health Partnership (CHP) Head of Finance, Tom Slavin, said: “Mid Highland CHP is delighted to see the completion of this building, which will allow the provision of dental services in Portree in a modern building that will be fit for purpose well into the future.”
And Frank Reid, Regional Managing Director for Robertson, said: “We are delighted to hand over this state-of-the-art dental facility to our client NHS Highland.
“The successful delivery of this project is a direct result of the partnership working between Robertson and NHS Highland. The new dental clinic will be of great benefit to the local community.”
The project was managed by management, engineering and development consultants Mott MacDonald.
The clinic will not be able to accept direct requests for NHS dental registration, therefore, anyone wishing to access NHS dental care at the clinic should contact the NHS Highland Dental Helpline on 0845 644 2271 or via email at nhshighland.dentalhelpline@nhs.net.
