The exit exacerbates a crisis that has seen patients struggling to get dental treatment because so few dentists will see them as NHS patients. The number of dentists providing NHS care in England fell from 23,733 at the end of 2020 to 21,544 at the end of January this year, according to the latest NHS figures obtained by the Association of Dental Teams (ADG) at its discretion. laws for information. With each of the dentists having a case load of about 2,000 patients, workforce depletion has left some 4 million people without access to NHS care. The NHS now has the smallest number of dentists it has had in a decade, according to the ADG, which represents large operating chains. Access to NHS dental care is so limited that people in some areas are forced to wait three years for an appointment. Difficulty receiving treatment is one of the main sources of frustration for the public with health services, with only one in three people being satisfied with dental services. Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST Many are forced to go private, as they look in vain for an NHS dentist in order to solve the problems. Some have undergone dozens of surgeries in their area in a futile attempt to be admitted as NHS patients or had to travel outside their area to do so. An increasing number of dental surgeries do little or no NHS-funded work, citing problems with the dental contract. Covid, Brexit and government underfunding of the NHS dental services have combined to create a “critical” situation that is likely to worsen before it improves, ADG warned. Groups of patients have expressed concern about the “unacceptable” situation faced by those in need of dental care. “People are struggling to get the dental treatment they need when they need it. This is an extremely worrying issue. “Some dental clinics have either closed or become completely private, with some dentists running out of NHS capacity and asking people for private pay instead,” said Louise Ansari, NHS Healthwatch’s national director of monitoring. England. Children, people with disabilities and people living in nursing homes are the worst affected, he added. The loss of 2,000 NHS dentists last year follows a drop from 951 last year. The NHS’s dentistry has become “a rotten system” that frustrates patients and deters dental professionals, said the British Dental Association (BDA), which represents 42,000 dentists in the UK. He blamed the inability of patients to receive NHS care in England on ministers who provided only enough money in the dental contract to cover the cost of treatment for just over half of the population. Successive governments since 2010 have pledged to reform the dental contract, but have not done so, although negotiations are ongoing. NHS England spends around 3 3 billion a year on dental care, although that amount has remained stable for some time. Dentists dislike what they call a “broken” contract that includes goals for the amount of care provided and, as they claim, can pay them the same amount to make a filling by doing 10 and discourage them from treating complicated cases because they do not receive paid for the time required. “Dentists simply do not see a future in the NHS, with a broken contract throwing away talent every day, it remains in place,” said Shawn Charlwood, chairman of the BDA’s general dental committee. “We have to stop an exit that is already in motion. “Millions are left without the care they need and quick solutions are no substitute for real reforms and fair funding.” The ADG report states that as a result of the decline in NHS dentists, we are now seeing “dental deserts” across the country where there is almost no chance of ever visiting an NHS dentist for regular care. “Dental desserts pose a serious risk to the dental health of millions of NHS patients in England.” The trend is likely to worsen as dental clinics increasingly rely on private work to stay open, he warns. Deserts are particularly concentrated in rural and coastal areas. Names the area covered by the NHS Clinical Assignment Team (CCG) in North Lincolnshire as the part of England with the smallest number of NHS dentists per 100,000 people – just 32. North East Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire together second worst, with only 37 NHS dentists for every 100,000 people. Lincolnshire and Norfolk and Waveney are next, at 38. The report also reveals that only 26.1% of adults in Thurrock, Essex have visited an NHS dentist in the past two years – the lowest rate in the country – followed by West Essex (27.3%) and Kent and Medway (29.3%). Thurrock is also the lowest percentage of children who have visited an NHS dentist in the last year – just 30.7% – followed by Northeast London (32.2%) and North Lincolnshire (35.3%). “Dental deserts not only extend across East England, from East Yorkshire, through Lincolnshire to Norfolk, but are now emerging in many other ‘red wall’ constituencies that the government wants to build,” ADG said. . chairman, Neil Carmichael, a former Conservative MP. The ADG also warns that declining access to dental examinations raises the prospect of an “emerging health crisis” in which cases of oral cancer and type 2 diabetes are lost instead of being picked up by a dentist. He called on ministers to address the growing shortage of NHS dentists by taking action, including increasing the number of training positions for dentists in the UK and extending the recognition of qualified dentists in the EU beyond the end of this year. Urging the reform of the dental contract Rachel Power, the managing director of the Patients’ Association, said: “The helpline regularly receives calls from patients who can not find an NHS dentist. We know patients who go on three-year waiting lists just to get into the books of an NHS dentist. This is an unacceptable situation. “Dental deserts are not allowed to develop. “Dentists are often the health professionals who detect serious health problems in a timely manner.” A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services said: “We have given the NHS £ 50 million to fund up to 350,000 additional dental appointments and we are increasing the workforce so that people can get the oral care they need – in December. 2021, there were 264 more [private and NHS] registered dentists compared to the previous year. “We are committed to leveling health outcomes across the country – we have set up the Office for Health Improvement and Inequalities to tackle long-term health inequalities and we will publish a White Paper this year to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live more and healthier lives, regardless of background “.
