Bedford Borough NHS Dentistry

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Summary of report content

Healthwatch Bedford Borough has been dealing with an increase in people contacting it for help to access NHS dentistry. 

They wanted to know if dentists were taking on new NHS patients. They therefore undertook a deep dive, looking at both the NHS website and dental practice websites in both late December 2021 and early January 2022 to understand if the information was meaningful, current and easy to understand.

their audit found that just over half of the dental practices had no information available on the NHS website. Thus, it was ‘not known’ if they were accepting NHS patients. The entries available to the public for these practices only gave a date on which information had last been supplied, ranging from 2011 to 2021. Of these dentists, only one of the dentists had further information on their practice website regarding NHS patients.

The report contains 5 recommendations.

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General details

Local Healthwatch
Healthwatch Bedford Borough
Publication date
Date evidence capture began
Date evidence capture finished
Key themes
Access to services
Written information, guidance and publicity
Service organisation, delivery, change and closure

Methodology and approach

Was the work undertaken in partnership with another organisation?
No
Primary research method used
Observation (eg Enter and View)
If an Enter and View methodology was applied, was the visit announced or unannounced?
N/A

Details of health and care services included in the report

Details of health and care services included in the report
Dentist

Details of people who shared their views

Number of people who shared their views
0
Age group
Not known
Gender
Not known
Is the gender identity of people in the report the same as the sex they were assigned at birth?
Not known
Sexual orientation
Not known
Does this report feature carers?
Not known
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