Predictable Headlines After Flawed Healthwatch Report
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- Published: Tuesday, 25 May 2021 07:35
- Written by Chris Tapper
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The publication of the 2021 Healthwatch report on NHS dentistry has drawn many hysterical headlines in the newspapers, and despair amongst dental professionals.
Most of the papers picked up on one of Healthwatch’s key findings, that SOME people are being asked to wait UP TO three years to get NHS appointments, but the way stories were written, it gave the impression that such a wait is the norm and it’s imposed on all patients.
With headlines such as in The Telegraph saying ‘Patients told to seek private treatment as NHS dentists have three-year waiting lists,’ it’s little wonder that both the public AND dental professionals were angry on social media, albeit for different reasons.
Inaccuracies too, were frequent. The Telegraph referring to ‘practice lists’ of dental patients, when there have been no NHS ‘lists’ for well over a decade.
The notion that patients were being given straight choices between NHS appointments in three years, OR a private slot within a week, was propagated by many national and regional newspapers.
Few pointed out that 1,375 was a low number of participants to draw such damning conclusions from. In fact, none of the papers GDPUK looked at, did so.
The survey was also based on the experiences of 1,313 people who were trying to access NHS dental services during that period - NOT a random sample of the public.
A recent study of caries amongst three-year-olds carried out by the Oral Health Foundation studied nearly 20,000 children and carried more scientific weight, although it didn’t attract anything like the publicity this report did.
The print edition of the Daily Mail used the headline “THE DENTIST WILL SEE YOU…IN THREE YEARS.”
Meanwhile, the Mail Online barely mentioned the pandemic in its coverage of the Healthwatch report.
It pretty much glossed over the whole reason for the NHS dental crisis, not really explaining that backlogs were caused by the 2020 shutdown and by the subsequent restrictions on the number of patients that could be treated over this past nine months or so, after reopening was due to cross-infection control measures.
The Mail DID manage to mention the old ‘Some so desperate, they are pulling out their own teeth’ line, though.
The Mail stories prompted one prominent dentist to tweet “Absolute and utter rubbish. Reporting from the Daily Fail at its finest. We are working FLAT OUT and thankfully, my patients are grateful.”
The BBC News website at least told readers that “Social distancing, infection control and personal protective equipment has also meant that dentists have not been able to see as many patients as they used to.”
The Beeb quoted the Healthwatch chairman Sir Robert Francis as saying the saying the pandemic “Exacerbated the human impact of years of structural issues in NHS dentistry and is now pushing it to crisis point.”
But the BBC still led its piece with “Dentistry: NHS patients ‘asked to pay for private care.’” It followed with ‘some’ NHS patients, but by then, many readers will have already condemned NHS dentists as a breed.
The ITV News website, meanwhile, was reasonably accurate and not particularly sensational, although its headline was “Three-year wait as nation gripped by dentistry ‘crisis’”
The Sun went, predictably with “JAW DROPPING -- Brits desperate to see a dentist are pulling own teeth out amid three-year NHS wait”
The Sun continued “A damning report from watchdog Healthwatch England suggests patients are being told they may not be seen until 2024 at the earliest.” Adding “But the same surgeries are encouraging their patients to go private instead, offering appointments within a week.”
The implication here of course, is obvious, and is the least you can expect from the ‘Super Soaraway Sun.’
The Mirror was a smidgen less hysterical “NHS dental patients being asked to go private or wait two years for appointments.” At least patients were asked nicely, rather than being told, and they had the decency to reduce the waiting times to a more respectable two years.
The Mirror’s coverage was also brief, not once mentioning anyone pulling their own teeth out – which was nice.
The Times’ headline was an authoritative “Patients wait three years for NHS dentist.” No, ‘some’ or ‘up to.’
Although The Times mentioned the dental shutdown last year, it failed to highlight the problems practices have had in seeing their usual number of patients.
It did say “Many patients were offered extractions with no alternatives” during the height of the pandemic when dental emergency hubs were operating.
It should also be said, that much of the copy used by many of the newspapers came directly from the Press Association news agency.
The Daily Express was one of the few national papers to blame the coronavirus for the current ‘NHS dental crisis.’
Its headline said “Covid dental fallout,” but then let itself down by resorting to the hackneyed “Patients told to wait three years for an NHS dentist.”
It went further by referring to “SHOCKED patients being told to wait three years for an NHS dentist,” before resorting to “While others were kicked off waiting lists.”
The Guardian went with the notion that while some people were being told they would have to wait until 2024 for appointments, “Others are being removed from their practice lists for not making appointments sooner” – which seems a tad harsh if those patients hadn’t been frequent offenders for FTA’s or late cancellations.
One popular London-based dentist said on Twitter “The headlines about NHS dentistry having a three-year wait is no doubt going to create the usual dentist bashing backlash.”
“Underfunding, red tape and a lack of leadership are to blame...not your little dentist sat in a practice, working their backsides off.”
“Stories about patients having to pull their own teeth out will make the headlines but it detracts from the fundamental issues NHS dentistry in this country faces.”
UK dentists are not money grabbing pain inflicting monsters. We care about our patients. The training we undergo in this country is second to none,” she added.
We asked Healthwatch about the study.
A spokesperson told GDPUK this morning “The analysis was based on people's experiences of NHS dental care who contacted Healthwatch between January and March 2021 only and follows findings from Q 3 and Q2. A report we published in December was based on findings gathered in Q2 last year. So in total, we're talking about experiences of over 5,500 people, most of whom had problems getting an appointment with an NHS dentist when needed hence come across as negative - our analysis is based on what people tell us.”
“Additionally, we run (sic) two online polls in the last six months, with a combined 4000 people, which showed that people found NHS charges expensive.”
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