Private practices: Patients struggling to find NHS dentist

DENTAL STRUGGLES IN HULL

AS people in Hull face struggles to find availability at an NHS dentist, the Mail put it to the test to see how hard it is.

It comes as NHS dental patients at mydentist in Hull say they are being deregistered from their practice due to not attending check-up appointments that were not on offer during the pandemic.

They then say a waiting list to get back on is up to five years long.

They claim that during the pandemic, like many dental surgeries across the country, standard check-ups weren’t being carried out, and they were told to only book in an emergency.

However, these emergency appointments apparently “didn’t count” towards proving attendance.

Most people, to keep costs down, opt to be an NHS dental patient.

For a simple check-up or diagnosis (including X-rays), this would cost £23.80 across the board and there are 56 NHS dentists per 100,000 people in Hull.

After contacting 12 dentists in Hull, all told Hull Live they were not taking on any NHS patients, apart from one that said you could register, but the first appointment would be a year away.

Instead, some dentists offered a position in their waitlist, which was between one to three years long.

However, some dentists had spaces available relatively quickly for private patients but would expect you to pay more than triple the NHS fee in some cases.

The wait times of the 12 dental practices are as follows:

■ Rejuvadent Hull: This practice is for NHS patients only and advised the waitlist is two to three years long.

■ City Health Dental: The waitlist for NHS patients stands at 12 to 18 months.

■ The White House Dental Practice: This dentist is not taking on any new patients and does not have a waitlist. The receptionist advised new patients to call at 10am each day to find a cancellation slot.

■ Bonsai Dental Clinic: It no longer offer NHS services, but could book in private check-ups.

■ Oasis Dental Care: No NHS adult patients are being taken on, but children are. Private space is available, but the wait is three months.

■ Genix Healthcare: No new NHS patients are being accepted and there is no waitlist. Private patients are being accepted, however.

■ Griffin Dental Practice: This practice advised the waitlist is more than a year for NHS patients with an estimate of 1,000 people already on the list.

■ Ayer Dental Surgery: This practice is taking on NHS patients, but warned that the earliest check-up appointment available would be in a year’s time.

■ 543 Dental: It has an 18-month wait for new NHS patients, but could offer new patients going private an appointment this month.

■ The Lund Dental Practice: This surgery doesn’t take on adult NHS patients and their child NHS slots are at full capacity with no waitlist.

■ mydentist Holderness Road: The waitlist for NHS patients is full and it advised it will be this way until next year at least. If new patients wanted a private check-up, they could be fit in for June or July time.

■ Genesis Dental Care: The waiting list for this clinic was three years and a whopping 1,700 people long. They advised a private check-up could be scheduled in the next three to four weeks.

So it seems the only way to be seen quickly by a dentist in Hull is to go private, but that comes at a cost.

The NHS band one price of £23.80 also covers initial examinations, diagnosis and urgent treatment. The private prices came back as triple the price for a check-up in some cases and almost quadruple the price for initial examinations.