NHS dentistry

Healthwatch Southend undertook desk-based research looking at NHS dentistry in January 2023.  They knew local people were struggling to find an NHS dentist, so they looked at the NHS website to see how many dentists were accepting NHS patients and how up-to-date the information was.  They also decided to call practices to ask specifically about children.  They found:

 A large number of practices had not updated their entries on the NHS website – one was dated 2011

• Of 17 practices,
  • 9 had no update
  • 4 only took patients if referred
  • 2 were accepting patients
  • 2 definitely said they were not accepting patients
  • Only 1 practice was definitely accepting children
  • 2 said they had limited capacity for children
  • 5 said they might have appointments for children’s emergency on a day by day basis
• They also looked at the impact of travelling outside the City. Using Google Maps, they calculated that an imaginary patient would spend almost three and a half hours on buses, costing over £9 (assuming the cap on bus fares was not in place) on top of the NHS dental charges

 They shared their findings with Mid & South Essex Integrated Care Board, who will take on the planning and funding of NHS dentistry from April 2023.  They also sent copies to Southend City Council, with a recommendation that the People Scrutiny Committee look at dentistry at a future meeting.