Newcastle Dental practices and NHS choices

Healthwatch Newcastle wanted to complement their previous report on information for young people on dentistry by investigating how useful and complete the information is for the 42 dental practices in Newcastle listed on the NHS Choices website. They undertook an evaluation of dental practices information on NHS Choices to see if:

• The information displayed online was complete
• The quality of information would allow patients to make informed choices
• There were any gaps in the information provided and whether it had recently been updated

They found that:

• many webpages had not been updated since the site was populated five years ago.
• There were gaps in the information for the dental practices reviewed, including about accessibility
• Some webpages contained information which Healthwatch believes is especially useful for service users, including patient reviews, accessibility information and how to get to the surgery.

The report contains five recommendations about improving information about dental practices on the NHS choices website.