Area in focus - The fight for the St Paul's Dentist

The Bristol Cable

This time in 2023, if you passed through St Paul’s on a Thursday afternoon you’d find a group of people – from primary kids to pensioners – gathered on Ashley Road to protest the closure of the local dentist. It was part of a wave of planned cuts by private health giant BUPA, affecting 85 practices.

The dental practice closure made local headlines. But seven months later it was all over the national news – as it reopened under new management, with hundreds of people queueing round the block to get an NHS registration. Footage of the queues starkly illustrated the dire state of dentistry in the UK.

In this episode of our Area in Focus podcast, we talk to the remarkable group of campaigners who fought for the surgery to reopen – and succeeded, meaning local people could have a community dentist again. How did they manage it? And does the story hold lessons for other campaigners – and for the public bodies and private companies who hold the power in healthcare?

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