New dental surgery opens

Patients are set to benefit as a new dental surgery opens in Littleborough, supported by Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust.

Dentist Dr Khalid Mushtaq is opening the new practice, employing an associate dentist, practice manager and two dental nurses. The surgery has been partly funded by the PCT through the Department for Health’s Capital Funding programme to support improved dental access.

A special hotline has been set up for patients to register. It will be open from Wednesday, November 7, to Friday, November 9, from 9am-5pm.

Patients should call 01706 652803 to put their name on the list.

Carole Williams, Primary Care Contracts Performance Manager, said: “This is great news for patients. The practice has been established with facilities to a very high specification and Dr Mushtaq has worked very hard to get the premises up and running in a fairly short time scale.”

“We don’t want patients to queue up to put their name on the list.  We would encourage people who currently do not have an NHS Dentist to phone the PCT on the Helpline and we can make sure their names are included.”

“This news reaffirms the PCT’s commitment to bringing about high quality improvements to access in general dental services.

The new surgery is a great model for how modern dental services can be developed through partnership working
with the PCT.”

The surgery will open to the public on Monday, November 12 and it is estimated that it will treat 1,500-2,000 new patients every year and perform 5,800 units of new dental activity.

The practice was awarded £106,000 to help with start-up costs including a refurbishment and will receive year-on-year funding for the new dentist of £130,000 per annum as part of the PCT’s Investment Plan for Dentistry.

Patients who have already contacted the PCT for dental registration or are already registered with Dr Mushtaq do not need to re-register.