Mystery Shopping of Dental Practices in East Sussex

In December 2021, Healthwatch East Sussex staff and volunteers undertook a ‘Mystery Shopping’ exercise with 74 dental practices based in East Sussex. They wanted to find out how easy it was for people to find a dentist accepting NHS patients, and what information or guidance was being provided by those practices that were not accepting new NHS patients.

Of the 74 East Sussex dental practices contacted, nearly two-thirds were not accepting or offering treatment to new NHS patients at the time of contact. Less than a quarter were accepting or treating new NHS patients. However, approximately half had restrictions, with five only accepting patients aged 18 or younger, and a further three were dealing with emergencies only.

Of the 47 practices not accepting new NHS patients, the vast majority were not offering any opportunity to be treated, whilst 5 were allowing people to join a waiting list.

Most of the dental practices contacted indicated that they were very busy, and in many cases had multiple enquiries each day from people seeking to obtain NHS dental treatment who had not previously used the practice. Whilst figures may fluctuate over time, nearly a quarter of practices contacted indicated that they received 20 or more enquiries in a typical week.

Nearly half of the dental practices in East Sussex made clear that if they were contacted by someone seeking NHS treatment, that they would offer them private treatment as an alternative (where available).

The report contains seven recommendations.