Sir, I read with interest the recent article on the geography and availability of NHS dentistry1.

Since retiring from Denplan (now Simplyhealth Professionals) in 2016, I've moved to the beautiful isle of Wight, which has a population of around 140,000. A search on NHS.uk revealed that there are NO practices on the island accepting new adult NHS patients (We're glad we have kept up our Denplan memberships!).

The nearest practice accepting NHS adults is in Gosport, Hampshire, which the NHS cheerfully tells me is but 11.2 miles from my house. Sadly, a search on Google Maps advises it is 31 miles by road - if the patient is fortunate enough to have a car. So that would put us in 10th or 11th place in your Table 1.

But there is more. As the Island is just that - an island, a return car ferry, say next Tuesday, would cost around £56.00 (plus £5.00 booking fee if no internet access), and a further 1.5 hours each way in queuing and travel time - hence a total of about 3.5 hours each way. Let's allow 10 litres of fuel and my travel costs are about £68.00.

If I must choose public transport, the issue becomes quite Byzantine. A train from Shanklin IOW to Ryde pierhead is £6.20 return; a FastCat catamaran ferry from Ryde to Portsmouth is £17.00 and I would still have to get the Portsmouth to Gosport ferry (a mere £3.60) before boarding a bus to my destination. but I could at least probably do that, allowing for connection delays, in about 2.5 hours. A total cost of about £30.00.

Sadly the 'public transport route' column in your Table 1 of the article might not have room to fit that all in.

'Tourism-heavy, rural and coastal' all apply to us on the IOW, yet we are just over 2.5 hours by train from Waterloo and adjacent to a 'Solent City' population exceeding 1.7 million - the most densely populated area in south-east England outside London. Food for thought, and a very real problem to address.

R. Matthews OBE, Hon Life President, Simplyhealth Professionals, via email.