People travel ‘hundreds of miles for dental care’
Some patients are having to travel hundreds of miles for NHS dental care, MPs have heard.
Painting a dire picture of the state of NHS dental services in England, one local Healthwatch representative said that patients are being forced to chose between heating and dental care.
Call handlers for Healthwatch Lincolnshire have described having 'palpitations' because they are unable to help patients trying to access dental care, Sarah Fletcher, chief executive of Healthwatch Lincolnshire said.
She said that people call the local patient champion daily trying to seek help accessing care.
Jo York, managing director of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care
Board said the local health body has had 'significant issues' with dentists handing back some of their NHS contracts.
She said that when a GP surgery closes, patients are found spots at neighbouring practices 'that's not the same in dentistry unfortunately'.
Meanwhile, Chris McCann of Healthwatch England, called for a 'national oral health assessment' which would lead to a 'reformed system where everyone is guaranteed a point of entry'.
'We would like to see a situation where people have the same kind of relationship with a dentist as they do at their GP, so that people immediately know where to go when they have an issue with their oral health,' he told the committee.
Ms Fletcher said: 'The lack of dentistry is something that as a Healthwatch we hear every day.
‘Our team are in despair, they don't know what to tell people when they contact us.
'We've been told time and again that people are having to make difficult choices, almost impossible choices, between their heating and maybe dental (care).
‘Naturally, the dental is the one that they choose not to (pay for).
'We've got families that are having to travel hundreds of miles to go to an NHS dentist.
'They are telling us they're in acute pain, that pain is not being addressed, they can't afford to have the treatment, they've gone many years without treatment.
‘And, therefore, when they do manage to get into a dentist there is that much work that needs to be done that actually even under the NHS, it's often not affordable.'