New Healthwatch Report – NHS Access Difficulties Have ‘Intensified’
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- Published: Monday, 13 December 2021 07:54
- Written by Chris Tapper
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People in every corner of England are struggling to get the dental treatment they need when they need it, according to the latest research carried out by Healthwatch.
Healthwatch England has said that a lack of access to NHS dentistry has “Intensified as an issue for people over the last 18 months.”
The Healthwatch blog emphasised that decision-makers must react to the issue “Now, to protect our health.”
It said “That is why we are again calling on the Government and NHS England to speed up dental contract reform and provide significant and sustained funding to tackle the underlying problems of dental access and affordability.”
The report was published as the Sunday Times headlined a report on the Healthwatch research with “Dentists ‘holding parents to ransom.’”
The newspaper’s Health Editor Shaun Lintern said “Parents are being pressured by dentists to pay for private appointments in exchange for their children being seen on the NHS, according to a new report showing widespread shortcomings in care.”
But the Healthwatch said in his blog on the report “Due to the nature of our data, we cannot comment on the scale of this issue.”
“However, people feel some dental providers are using unfair tactics to increase the number of private patients.”
The Healthwatch said that the number of people struggling to secure an NHS dental appointment had increased fourfold in 12 months.
The National GP Patient Survey in 2020 reported that only 6% of respondents struggled to obtain an NHS dental appointment. The most recent (2021) said that 23% were now unable to get an NHS appointment.
Healthwatch also reported that the number of child patients seen has halfed - “44% down in 2021 compared to two years earlier.”
It went on “Our analysis of the latest data* found that seven of the NHS’s 42 new sub-regions, known as Integrated Care Systems, report that they have no practices taking on new adult NHS patients. And less than one in five (17%) of practices say they are taking on new child NHS patients at the moment.”
Worryingly, ‘positive sentiment’ towards the dental service, which lay at around 30% before the COVID-19 pandemic, is now “Down to its lowest ever level – at just two per cent.”
The Healthwatch report said that some practices have either shut down or gone fully private and that some dentists have exhausted their total NHS capacity “And are asking people for private fees instead.”
The research also found that people were facing difficulties in finding accurate information about which practices are taking on new NHS patients, because some NHS and dentist’s websites aren’t being updated regularly.
Commenting on the findings Healthwatch England Chair Sir Robert Francis QC, said “The big worry about the shortage of NHS appointments leading people to private care is that it further deepens the health inequalities that COVID-19 has starkly highlighted.
“We won’t build back a fairer service until access to NHS dentistry is equal and inclusive for everyone.
“Today, dentistry remains the only part of the NHS that receives a lower budget in cash terms than in 2010. The ongoing neglect of NHS dentistry will have repercussions for the life-long health of current and future generations.”
“Lack of access to dental care, particularly for children, is a hugely worrying issue that the NHS must tackle immediately.”
“Communities all over the country have made it clear that we need to fix NHS dentistry – we urgently need to make it accessible and affordable for everyone. And that is why we’re once again calling on the Government and NHSE to take people’s struggles seriously, speed up dental reform and provide meaningful, sustained funding."
“We won’t build back a fairer service until access to NHS dentistry is equal and inclusive for everyone,” Sir Robert concluded.
The Sunday Times said “Less than a fifth of the 5,421 dentists listed on the NHS.uk website say they would take on children as NHS patients and this drops
to just Il per cent for adults.”
“Healthwatch said it had received more than 230 reports linked to children between April and September this year alone.”
“It also said that some patients were unable to access emergency treatment and had ended up in A&E.
"In extreme cases, one person has pulled their own teeth out, and another was admitted to a hospital because they did not get the proper treatment on time."
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