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Article for ‘The Guardian’ - Can you help –

There is to be an article in the family section of ‘The Guardian’ on what it is like to be brought up in a forces family. The article talks to family members from all three services but still needs to understand the experiences of children growing up in a naval family.

They are particularly interested in speaking to boys, aged between 10-12 years, as they do not yet have enough information from this category.
The sorts of questions that will be asked are: In what ways do you keep in contact with the serving person while they are away? Are you close to other forces families? Do you go to a regular school or a forces school and what is it like?

The conversational interview will be done over the phone with parental consent. If you would like to take part please contact Jo Mears on: 013 0650 1830.

Hello everyone,

We are trying to gather some information on access to dentistry and would very much appreciate it if you could take a minute to answer the poll on the homepage of our website.

Thank you!

Hello, just to let you know that there is a comment on our breaking news section from the Minister of the Armed Forces, on the response to the Royal Anglian parade through Luton on Wednesday, which may be of interest to you.

The NFF is excited to announce that at close of play today we will be uploading our new website to this address.

The process will take up to 24 hours; please bear with us during the transition period as you may experience difficulties accessing the website and message boards.

Thank you for your patience and we hope you enjoy the new website!

Hello again Lisa - not sure if you're already aware, but there was a small article in the Portsmouth News a couple of days ago where mention was made of a new NHS dental practice for up to 10,000 patients, starting up in Waterlooville on 11 Feb. In order to apply you have to call the Dental Helpline in the usual way on 0845 0508345 between 8.30 and 4.30 Mon-Fri. They're keeping the exact whereabouts a secret for fear of being swamped with queues! Might be worth trying this out too? Do still register your problem with your husband's DO though, in order that this is logged as evidence for SPCP. Jackie

Hi Lisa - Have just spoken to someone in Service Personnel Policy in MOD and their advice is for you to contact your Primary Care Trust and explain that you are having difficulty in finding an NHS dentist, and ask them where you can get dental treatment as it is their duty to provide NHS dental care. This is a link to their contacts page - http://www.hampshirepct.nhs.uk/index/aboutus/contactus.htm.

Alternatively call NHS Direct and explain the situation to them.

He also asked if your husband would report this through his Chain of Command in order for them to log it, as each Service is supposed to be linking in with the PCT in order to make sure that they cater for the Service families and they need evidence if this isn't working, and also tell them whether the PCTs solution is satisfactory in order to help them gather evidence.

Hope that all helps you Lisa, but do please keep us posted. Jackie

Kim

After phoning about 20 dentists I've managed to find one in Southsea (we are in Emsworth) so it's a bit of a trek etc, that's accepting children only, but not for me.

Any help with this would be much appreciated!

Lisa

Hi Lisa

Have you tried the NHS website? There is also a telephone number to phone if required?

http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/Pages/servicesearch.aspx

I am just checking, as this is the advice the Department of Health give us. If, however the response is that there isnt one then I will feed that information back into the Ministry of Defence as it is very high priority at the moment. let me know what you have done already and I will take it from there.



Kim

Having major problems finding a NHS Dentist in the Havant/Emsworth area - Help!

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Important Information:

Can you please note that we will be closing down the message boards over the Christmas period for some maintenance. If you have a query that needs an answer during the Christmas holidays, you can still email us on admin@nff.org.uk and we will pick up and respond, but for anything more urgent please follow the emergency information guidelines on the Home Page. Please bear with us and we will have them up and running again in the New Year. Happy Christmas to you all. Jackie

Marie-Louise

You may find that the Dental Centre could help getting an F Med 24 for you