Four-am queues for NHS dental treatment could become the ‘new normal’, British Dental Association warns
- More than 12 million people in Britain currently have an unmet need for dentistry
- Activists have warned that the ‘access crisis’ is forcing patients to turn to DIY stores
Daily four-hour queues for the dentist risk becoming the ‘new normal’, experts warn.
Leigh, in Greater Manchester, has joined a growing list of communities where struggling patients queue from dawn to access a dentist.
It follows reports from Faversham, in Kent, where a practice received 27,000 calls for just 60 NHS slots last month.
And in May, a practice in King’s Lynn saw queues of more than 300 people form from 4am.
Dentist leaders have warned that the exodus of dentists from the NHS will intensify without fundamental reform, and that the service will have no future.
Leigh, in Greater Manchester, has joined a growing list of communities where struggling patients queue from dawn to access a dentist. It follows reports from Faversham, in Kent, where a practice received 27,000 calls for just 60 NHS slots last month. Pictured the queue outside Faversham Smiles dental practice last month
Dentist leaders have warned that the exodus of dentists from the NHS will intensify without fundamental reform, and that the service will have no future. Pictured the queue outside Faversham Smiles dental practice last month. At 08:00 more than 100 people desperate to access the subsidized service lined up outside the practice in Kent.
Only 43 percent of people aged 18 and over were seen by a dentist in the 24 months to June this year, compared to more than half in the same period before the pandemic hit
In total, 18.1 million adults visited their dentist in the two years to June 2023, up from 16.4 million in the 24 months to June 2022. But this is still well below the 21 million in the two years to June 2020.
Analysis of recent government data shows that more than 12 million people currently have an unmet need for dentistry, one million more than in 2022.
Over six million adults tried but failed to get an appointment in the past two years, and 4.4 million simply didn’t try because they didn’t think they could get one.
The numbers are now almost three times what they were before the pandemic; in 2019, unmet need exceeded 4 million people.
Separate figures show that last year 121 fewer dentists provided NHS care than the year before, and that number has fallen by more than 500 since the lockdown.
Campaigners have warned that the ‘access crisis’ is forcing patients to turn to do-it-yourself dentistry, with some pulling their own teeth out because they struggle to be seen.
A recent inquiry by the Health and Social Care Committee described the state of the NHS dental service as ‘totally unacceptable in the 21st century’.
It set out fundamental changes, focusing on NHS contract reform that dentists are working on.
The British Dental Association (BDA), which represents dentists, characterized the reform plan as a ‘manual’ to save NHS dentistry.
A recovery plan for the service – promised in April – has yet to be published by the government.
BDA chairman Eddie Crouch said: ‘These scenes have no place in the wealthy country of the 21st century, but risk becoming the new normal for millions of patients.
“The Conservative Party meets in Greater Manchester in just under a month. Ministers must come up with solutions to this crisis, or NHS dentistry will have no future.”
The Ministry of Health and Social Affairs has been contacted for comment.