Dental care in Enfield

Healthwatch Enfield undertook mystery shopping research on access to NHS dentistry after hearing from the public that they were having difficulties in registering as NHS patients.  They contacted all 43 practices in Enfield.

• All postcode areas have 3 dental practices or more, with the greatest coverage in N13 and N14 – each with 7.
• Only a quarter of practices are accepting adult NHS patients and three of these practices had a waiting list for treatment. Postcodes N11 and N18 have the widest NHS coverage for adults, while EN3, N9 and N14 currently have no NHS provision.
• Over two in five practices  currently accepting children for NHS treatment. N21 has the widest coverage, while N9 has the least.

They also analysed their enquiries about dentistry.

• The vast majority of enquirers had been unsuccessful in finding NHS treatment locally, for themselves or family members, in some cases after making many enquiries (over 20 in one instance) and over several days.
• People felt that publicly available information, such as on the NHS website has been inadequate, and that content on local practice websites is often out-of-date or inaccurate. Support and advice services including NHS 111 have not been able to help.
• Those without NHS cover include new patients not yet in the system, and a large number who have been de-registered by their practice and now obliged to pay.
• Groups who are most affected are local people on benefits and parents on low income seeking treatment for their children. Other groups with particular difficulties or concerns include older people, those with dementia, the physical or learning disabled, pregnant women and new mums.

The report includes recommendations on access to treatment for children and improving information on websites.