‘Finding an NHS dentist seems to be like pulling teeth now’
MORE than 2,000 dentists quit the NHS last year, leaving millions of people struggling to get checkups or have teeth fixed.
These figures were extracted by the Association of Dental Groups (ADG) under our freedom of information laws.
This decline is on top of an additional loss of 950 in the previous year.
The NHS has the smallest number of dentists it has had for a decade according to the ADG, which represents major chains of surgeries.
Healthwatch England has reported that people are struggling to get the dental treatment they need, when they need it. It is a hugely worrying issue.
Some dental practices have either shut down or have gone fully private.
Children, disabled people and people living in care homes are the worst affected, says Healthwatch.
According to the British Dental Association (BDA) which represents the UK’S 42,000 dentists, NHS dentistry has become ‘a rotten system’ which lets down patients and deters practitioners of dental care.
It blames ministers for only providing enough money in the dental contract to cover the cost of treating just over half the population, leading to the inability of patients to access NHS care.
The BDA cites the ‘broken’ contract as the problem as it involves targets for the amount of care given and can end up paying dentists the same amount for doing one filling as for doing ten.
The contract also discourages dentists from taking on complex cases because they are not paid for the time involved in completing the treatment.
So many dentists do not see their future within the NHS.
The Patients Association’s chief executive Rachel Power has urged reform of the dental contract saying: “Our helpline regularly takes calls from patients who cannot find an NHS dentist. We know of patients joining three year waiting lists, just to get on the books of an NHS dentist.
“Dental deserts can not be allowed to develop. Dentists are often the health professionals who spot serious health problems early,such as mouth cancer and type 2 diabetes.”
Covid, Brexit and Government underfunding of NHS dental services have combined to create this critical situation.
But according to the Care Quality Commission, access to dental care for all has been highlighted as an issue since long before the pandemic.
However, the profession has also been affected by EU dentists leaving and not coming to the UK after Brexit.
It is all too easy for the Government to blame covid for the crisis facing many areas of the NHS. But access to NHS dentistry is one of the recurring issues that Healthwatch has reported on since 2013.
Clearly, covid has compounded the difficulties faced by dentistry as routine NHS dental services were paused at the start of the pandemic.
Then practices introduced enhanced infection prevention and control measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. This resulted in reduced capacity.
But Healthwatch pointed out that some dental practices were treating private patients, while saying they could not treat NHS patients due to covid.
Some people were told that they had been ‘deregistered’ with their usual dentist during the pandemic and were unable to find help elsewhere even though, as NHS England says, people do not need to register with a dentist.
People have felt abandoned, disrespected, frustrated and sometimes in pain according to Healthwatch.
As people have struggled to get appointments, there has been a knock-on effect for other urgent and emergency services, such as emergency departments and NHS 111.
This decline in access to dental care raises the prospect of ‘a looming health crisis’ according to ADG.
It wants ministers to tackle the growing shortage of NHS dentists by taking action to increase the number of training places for dentists in the UK and extending, beyond the end of this year, recognition of the qualifications of EU trained dentists.
Successive Conservative governments since 2010 have pledged to reform the dental contract but have not done so.
It is time they acted to avoid this crisis.