THE number of people on the waiting list for an NHS dentist has almost tripled since Christmas.

In York and Selby, figures show there were 1,250 people on the database for an NHS dentist for the final quarter of last year. But that jumped to 3,482 for the first quarter of this year.

Coun Richard Moore said he was surprised the figures were not discussed at a City of York Council health scrutiny committee meeting.

He said: “It’s a huge jump. I’m surprised there has been a jump of this size given the assurances of the primary care trust and I would be interested to know how it has come about as it was not brought out at the scrutiny meeting. From experience, I’m aware of people having to wait for treatment that they need and are being required to pay for it before they are even given an appointment.”

Coun Sandy Fraser, chairman of the health scrutiny committee, said it was more useful to look at the long-term figures and he said access to dental treatment was getting better, with the vast majority of people waiting to be assigned an NHS dentist getting one in less than two months.

Coun Fraser said the situation had also improved because the local primary care trust had commissioned a new dental practice which had opened at Clifton Moor.

Amanda Brown, assistant director of commissioning at NHS North Yorkshire and York, said the reason for the sharp increase in the number of people on the waiting list was because the primary care trust had been actively promoting it and letting people know how to get on the list.

She said: “Our dental database is a very effective tool by which we can match up those people who are not currently assigned to an NHS dentist to one that’s convenient for them.

“Since April 2008, we’ve assigned nearly 15,000 new patients to a NHS dental practice in the Selby and York areas alone. The total number of new patients being added to the dental database has been steadily increasing since April 2008 and we are pleased with this as it shows that more people are using our service and enabling us to connect them with a dental practice.

“Since the autumn of 2008, we have been heavily promoting our dental database to encourage people to sign up to it.

“The results of this work can be seen in the rise in the numbers of patients on the database since January 2009.”

Anyone in North Yorkshire wanting to join the dental database can register their details by email at nyy-pct.dentalregistration@nhs.net, by phone on 01904 724107, or by writing to NHS Dental Waiting List, Freepost, NEA 13107, York.