A new city centre dental clinic in Plymouth is set to provide up to 3,500 appointments per year from late 2025 onwards.
The University of Plymouth’s Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PDSE) is working to set up the new practice, with a £4 million capital investment.
The project has been driven forward with support from the Plymouth Dental Taskforce – set up as soon as the Council’s new administration took control in May last year - and marks a culmination of six years of joint working between PDSE and Plymouth City Council.
The Council has worked closely with PDSE to help them find an accessible and appropriate location for the practice. The current intention is for it to be based in a Council-owned key city centre location, where clinicians will provide much-needed access to dental care, and the location is set to be revealed soon.
News that we are one step closer was not going to be announced until the location was finalised. However, as news has been published early that we are in negotiations around a site, the Council wants to clarify the status of the project.
Urgent treatment will be delivered via an innovative combination of qualified dentists and undergraduate students on placement from the University of Plymouth’s Peninsula Dental School, along with new postgraduate training opportunities to help retain dental professionals in the city and wider South West region.
It is anticipated that the practice will open in late 2025, subject to planning and approvals.
Councillor Mary Aspinall, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care and Chair of the Taskforce, said: “It’s brilliant to see this project moving forward. Helping residents to access NHS dental treatment has been one of our key priorities. As a Council, we’ve been working closely with PDSE to help make this a reality for a number of years. This has included lobbying for NHS funding through the Dental Taskforce and helping to find a suitable city centre location.
“Once open, this new dental practice will make a huge difference by ensuring thousands more people living in the city can access the NHS dental care that they deserve.”
The Plymouth Dental Taskforce was created in 2023 to address the growing dental crisis in the city. The group includes representatives from Plymouth City Council, NHS Devon, Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PDSE), Livewell Southwest, MPs and University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.
With more than 22,000 Plymouth residents currently on the waiting list for an NHS dentist, the Taskforce has agreed to focus on three key priorities, the first of which is to help deliver a new PDSE dental facility in the city centre. The Taskforce will also focus on obtaining additional funding to enhance preventative measures that help to protect residents’ oral health, and using the annual NHS dental underspend to commission new services for people with the highest needs.