A new dental practice is opening in a Norfolk town – offering places to NHS patients.
The Dental Design Studio will complete its takeover of Bupa Dental Care in North Walsham this Friday (February 16).
The new dental practice in Market Place will open to patients next Wednesday (February 21).
The Dental Design Studio will take on existing patients at Bupa Dental Care and hopes to offer NHS places for new patients.
Dr Jeff Sherer, clinical director at The Dental Design Studio, said the practice will know how many places are available once the takeover is complete this week.
"We are very pleased to announce that The Dental Design Studio will be taking ownership of the former Bupa North Walsham dental practice on Friday February 16," Dr Sherer said.
"We will be undertaking staff training across the first week with any appointments being booked with our existing patients.
"As we have already indicated, we anticipate that the volume of existing patients may leave us with limited capacity to accept new NHS patients, however we will simply not know this until we take full ownership of the dental practice and its patient data.
"We will be offering private dental services at the practice too."
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The announcement of the opening comes as people queued for three days to register as NHS patients at a new dental practice in Bristol last week.
St Pauls Dental Practice opened for in-person registrations at the start of the week and the practice said it enrolled 1,500 people in just two days.
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"We want to avoid a repeat of scenes recently broadcast of people standing for hours on end to register for dental care," Dr Sherer said.
"We would therefore request people who wish to express an interest in joining the practice to please use this link www.ddswelcome.co.uk where your details can be submitted."
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