Dentists protest at ‘catch-22’ after 19 million appointments missed
Lizzie Roberts
AROUND 19 million NHS dental appointments have been missed because of coronavirus restrictions to services, dentists have said.
In a letter to Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, the British Dental Association has called on the Government to invest in practices to help them increase capacity and provide vital care. Nearly three quarters of practices are operating at half their pre-pandemic capacity, according to a survey by the BDA, with nearly two thirds (63 per cent) reporting they are focusing on emergency cases over routine dentistry.
The major obstacle to increasing capacity is “fallow time”, the mandated time needed between patients to minimise risks of coronavirus transmission, dentists say. Despite new regulations allowing dentists to cut the wait time from 60 minutes after an aerosol generating procedure to 15 minutes, 57 per cent said they lacked the funds to invest in the equipment required to do so.
As a result, tens of millions of patients were missing out on treatment, the BDA said. Data obtained through freedom of information show there were around 14.5million fewer treatments delivered by NHS dentists in England between April and August compared to the same period last year. The BDA said activity had not exceeded a third of normal levels for September and October, bringing the figure to an estimated 19million.
“Covid-19 restrictions on patient throughput are placing significant limits on the number of patients we can treat. Your support could help bring tens of millions of patients back through our doors,” the letter stated.
Eddie Crouch, the BDA’S chairman, said coronavirus restrictions had left dentists “firefighting huge backlogs”.
“We face a catch-22. New rules could bring back a dose of normality, but come with a multimillion-pound bill for new kit that practices simply cannot afford,” he said.
A Department of Health spokesman said the NHS was “working hard” to resume routine treatments. They stressed all dentists are able to remain open, “those holding NHS contracts have continued to be paid in full” and priority access is “expected to be given to urgent care and vulnerable groups”.