A village in the remote Highlands of Scotland has lost its dental clinic, leaving residents facing a two-hour round trip to get treatment if they need it. The M&S Dental Care centre in Mallaig has closed after just three and a half years, primarily due to rising hygiene guidelines that means the centre does not have enough room to install new equipment to decontaminate tools. Patients will now have to travel to Fort William for dental care.
Dentist George Muir said that it had been ‘a pleasure’ working in Mallaig and added that the team were ‘gutted’ about having to leave the village. He went on to say that ‘Unfortunately, the days of the single handed practice are over, the demands of conforming to the current standards are too high. The new regulations are all about cross-infection and the intention is that the same standard should apply to every process everywhere, whether it’s the operating theatre at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness or the dentist’s surgery.’
When addressing the problem of travel arrangements for patients with health issues, a spokeswoman for NHS Highland said that ‘In acknowledgement of this, NHS Highland is planning to provide a two day per week service through its Salaried Dental Service, at the Mallaig Health Centre, with decontamination of the dental instruments taking place at the Camaghael Health Centre, Fort William.’