A city has been left without any availability for new NHS dental patients after a chain shut down three surgeries.
Colosseum Dental is closing three practices in Portsmouth, Hampshire, making a number of staff redundant and leaving thousands people without an NHS dentist.
The move comes as the NHS website shows no places available for new patients in Portsmouth, with the nearest spaces available a ferry ride away in Gosport or a half-hour drive away in Havant.
One patient, who did not wish to be named, said: “I received a letter saying that I would be provided ongoing care at another surgery but when I contacted them I was told all they could do was put me on a waiting list and 20,000 patients were affected by the closures.
“They said Colosseum had made a ‘business decision’ to shut the three surgeries and the staff had been made redundant.”
NHS England South East insisted the number of patients affected by the closure was 9,000.
Colosseum Dental Group is a Europe-wide company owned by investment group Jacobs Holding, based in Switzerland.
It gained responsibility for the three Portsmouth surgeries it is now closing when it took over the Southern Dental group in 2017.
The Government has cut per-patient funding for dentistry while ramping up charges to those who attend. Its funding formula also sets quotas limiting how many patients dentists can be paid to treat.
Mick Armstrong, chair of the British Dental Association (BDA), said: “Years of underfunding and failed contracts have taken their toll.
“We are seeing practices struggling to remain sustainable as vacancies go unfilled, and over a million patients left unable to secure an appointment.
“NHS Dentistry remains the Cinderella Service, and this is the latest evidence that its future can no longer be guaranteed.”
More than a million new patients tried and failed to access an NHS dentist last year according the Government’s Survey.
BDA polling found 75% of NHS practices in England struggling to recruit enough dentists to fill vacancies last year.
Government dental spend in England has fallen by nearly £550 million in real terms since 2010, with patient charges increasing by 30% to plug the funding gap.
A spokesman for NHS England South East said: “There are more than 20 dental practices open in the Portsmouth area and patients in nine in 10 dental surgeries will not be affected by these changes, while support is being offered for people to find alternative care where that’s needed.”
Stephen Morgan, Labour MP for Portsmouth South, said poorer members of the community would be worst-affected.
He said: “How will poorer families pay for the additional transport costs? How will single parents get the time off work to travel the extra distance?
“This Government needs to realise that carelessly hacking off bits of our public services and selling it to the highest bidder is not the best way to run a country.
Colosseum, Jacobs Holding and NHS England have been approached for comment.
