Dad’s ‘DIY dentistry’ highlighted in report
452% complaints rise in England
A HEALTH watchdog is calling for the government and the NHS to address problems with dental services after it received an ‘unprecedented’ rise in calls and complaints during the coronavirus pandemic.
A new report by Healthwatch England has laid bare the stark consequences of people being unable to access dental services during the last nine months including people with ill-fitting dentures or broken fillings who developed ulcers, bleeding gums and infections, and young adults unable to get braces.
The report also detailed two cases of people pulling out their own teeth – one from Derbyshire whose son had learning disabilities and another in Portsmouth, when dad-of-three Chris Savage pulled out a tooth with pliers after drinking eight pints of Stella Artois at home in Milton, which The News reported on in October.
The 42-year-old, who was not signed up to a dentist, felt forced to pull out his own teeth after being told he would have to go private and pay £100 per tooth.
He said: ‘If other people are in the same position, it’s horrible. I really feel for them but something has got to change.’
Healthwatch England said it had received an ‘unprecedented’ 452 per cent rise in calls and complaints about dentistry over the summer.
The shortage of dentists in the Portsmouth area has been highlighted by The News Kick in the Teeth campaign.
It has called for more to be done to understand the longterm impact on people’s dental health caused by the delays to care that have occurred during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sir Robert Francis QC, chairman of Healthwatch England, said: ‘ Even before the pandemic, people were telling us about problems in accessing NHS dental appointments but since the start of the summer these reports have hugely increased.
‘If we don’t improve access to NHS dental care, not only do people risk facing far greater dental problems in the future but it also puts pressure on overstretched hospitals and GPs.’
More than 77,000 people turned up at hospital and minor injury services across the country in 2019/20 with dental problems.
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust was among the trusts unable to provide full details for the year.
However, in the last quarter – between January 1 and March 31, 212 people turned up to A&E with dental problems, costing the NHS £35,616.
Something has gone seriously rotten at the heart of NHS dentistry in Britain. We have long campaigned for shortages to be filled, but now it appears that the problems go even deeper. Closures of surgeries in Portsmouth, combined with a national shortage of new practitioners, and a tendency for some dentists to treat only private patients, means many people are unable to get their teeth regularly checked and looked after.
The crisis surely reached its nadir earlier this year, when The News reported how Portsmouth father-of-three Chris Savage, with the aid of eight pints of strong lager, resorted to pulling out his own tooth with pliers because he could not get to see a dentist.
As our comment said at the time, it conjured up images of Dickensian nightmares rather than life in Britain, 2020.
The pandemic has seen little progress made and a new report has laid bare the extent of the problem. Healthwatch England paints a depressing picture of people with ill-fitting dentures or broken fillings who developed ulcers, bleeding gums and infections, and young adults unable to get braces.
The watchdog said it had received an ‘unprecedented’
452 per cent rise in calls and complaints about dentistry over the summer.
Its chairman, Sir Robert Francis QC, said: ‘If we don’t improve access to NHS dental care, not only do people risk facing far greater dental problems in the future but it also puts pressure on overstretched hospitals and GPs.’
We have seen much to celebrate about the NHS over the past 11 months, and the hard work, dedication and resilience of its staff cannot be overstated.
But dentistry has emerged as a glaring weakness.
Health secretary Matt Hancock has undoubtedly had a busy year, but sorting out dentistry in the NHS is now a priority. for 2021.