A DISTRESSED pensioner has called for emergency dental care to be made available on bank holidays following her "traumatic" experience.

Barbara Gullefer, 74, of Harwich, was in "excruciating" pain over the Easter bank holidays but was out of luck as all the town's dentists were closed.

As her pain worsened, Barbara suffered severe facial swelling as she sought out treatment from hospitals and A&E units.

She said: “I’ve been in so much pain since last Thursday and could not get any specialist care so and called 111 several times to get help.

Harwich and Manningtree Standard:

“I ended up having to go all over Essex, a GP saw me at Bloomfield Hospital in Chelmsford who gave me a prescription.

“Colchester A&E also gave me some morphine, but no prescription.

"I’m grateful for their help but there should be emergency dental care available on bank holidays.”

Two years ago Barbara had root canal treatment and has been having regular dental treatment to ease her pain.

She has an appointment on April 18 but her pain became unbearable last Thursday.

Barbara added: “The pain was too much.

"I’ve got a high pain tolerance as I’ve had appendicitis and kidney stones but they weren’t as bad as this.

“I called 111 at 6am on Thursday morning and I was told to call the A&E unit in Colchester at 10am but that’s another four hours of pain.

“When I called at 10am, I got no response and had to call 111 again and they said a dental nurse would call me and she did, but that was two hours later again.”

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The dental nurse told Barbara the A&E unit did not treat teeth pain so she went to the unit on Saturday out of desperation and was given morphine.

Barbara said: “I would have paid for private care to be honest, I called so many dentists. Thank god I had my husband here because I don’t drive.”

A spokesperson for the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board, said: “We are very sorry to hear of this patient’s experience.

"We urge anyone seeking emergency dental care when their own surgery is closed to call NHS 111 for details of the nearest NHS dentist offering an out-of-hours service.”