A Huntingdonshire woman kicked off her dentist's list for not making an appointment while undergoing cancer treatment has been reinstated following an intervention from The Hunts Post.

MyDentist Dental Practice in Tebbutts Road, St Neots, removed Ginette Casswell from its list of NHS patients in June because she did not attend an appointment for two years.

However, Ms Casswell, 58, stressed she was 'too weak' to attend as she had been undergoing chemotherapy after being diagnosed with liver and bowel cancer in 2021. 

She said: "I called the practice to make an appointment, but I was told that I had been struck off because I missed the two-year deadline for appointments. 

"I tried to explain that the reason I hadn't been able to attend is because I'd been receiving treatment for cancer and felt too weak to attend, but they didn't seem to understand.

"So I visited the practice the next day in person to see if I could make an appointment in person, but I just got the same response."

She added: "The most important reason why I couldn't attend is because while you're undergoing chemotherapy there's a risk of negative reactions to other medications, such as the injections a dentist may have to give you."

Ginette said living with cancer had knocked her confidence.Ginette said living with cancer had knocked her confidence. (Image: Ginette Casswell)

Due to the high number of people wishing to receive NHS dental treatment, some practices can remove patients who have not attended an appointment for two years or more from their list. 

According to figures, around a third of the 35,000 dentists currently registered with the General Dental Council in England do not do any work for the NHS. 

Ms Casswell said living with cancer had "knocked her confidence", and that she now feared going to the dentist for fear of "judgement". 

She added: "It didn't feel right that I'd be struck off through no fault of my own.

"For the last few years I've just been trying to stay alive, and my teeth, frankly, were the last things I was worried about."

A spokesperson for MyDentist said: “There is currently huge demand for NHS dentistry across the UK and in an effort to meet this demand, if we don’t hear from or treat a patient for several years, we assume they are being cared for elsewhere and we free up the space to a new NHS patient.

"We have recently relocated our practice in St Neots to a new site on Tebbutts Road, and as a result, have been able to recruit more dentists to incrementally grow our NHS capacity within the next couple of months.

"Due to the recruitment of new NHS dentists and having been made aware of Ms Casswell’s situation, we have spoken with her and an NHS appointment has been arranged for her at our new practice.”