Health watchdog warns North Yorkshire faces 'imminent dental disaster' as 'urgent' reform needed

Healthwatch North Yorkshire is an independent body that gathers and champions the views of health service users to identify improvements.

Their report published in August last year – the latest available – found patients have limited NHS options, face long waiting lists and increasing disruption and postponed appointments.

Ashley Green, CEO at Healthwatch North Yorkshire, said: "Too many people are unable to access NHS dental services across the county and the situation is getting worse by the day.

"Too often we hear about lack of access, eye-watering waiting times, and concerns around children’s oral health significantly impacting on people’s health and their lives."

According to NHS England, there are only 77 NHS dental practices in North Yorkshire, providing for a population of more than 600,000; meaning there is one dental practice per 8,000 people.

Healthwatch’s report found only two practices in the entire county that would take on new adult patients for NHS treatment, and they both had significant restrictions on who was allowed to register.

It said waiting lists can be as long as three years and can have more than 1,000 people on them. In addition, the cost of private treatment is prohibitively expensive for those unable to access NHS dentistry, resulting in a large proportion of people not seeking treatment.

In the report, Zafran Majid, a Dental Practice Manager, said: "Covid-19 has brought to the fore the issues within the NHS dental system which have been long known. NHS dentists want to provide NHS services, but we are constrained by the system. The funding system needs to be looked at and Covid has made the situation significantly worse."

The report said it found a "concerning" lack of clarity regarding the actual level of NHS dentist provision across the county. It identified "significant" levels of inaccuracy and confusion and disputed NHS England’s claim of 77 practices operating in the region, as it only identified 71 through its research and the NHS Choices website.

For instance, despite claiming to have been "updated" on January 24 2022, {my}dentist on Dunslow Road in Eastfield is still listed on the NHS ‘find a dentist’ tool, when the practice closed in April last year.

Mr Green added: "If that wasn't bad enough, several North Yorkshire NHS dental practices have closed, putting even more pressure on a broken system. Something needs to be done and very quickly if we are to avoid an imminent dental disaster."

'Urgent and radical' reform needed

"Urgent and radical" reform is needed as NHS dentistry has reached "a new low", health experts have said.

NHS dentists work under the units of dental activity (UDA) system. Critics have claimed the UDA system does not incentivise preventative work and is a key reason for dentists leaving the health service.

North Yorkshire dentist Jeremy Boyle said: "If a patient needs four fillings, an extraction, a root canal treatment and a denture addition, you get paid the exact same amount as if you just did one filling on that patient – there is absolutely zero incentive to take on a high needs patient – it's not financially viable."

The current NHS dental budget – £3.2bn – could only cater for around 51 per cent of the UK population, Mr Boyle added.

Healthwatch York manager Sian Balsom said: "NHS dentistry has reached a new low and is in need of urgent and radical reform. If we fail to act soon we’ll be putting further pressure on an already severely stressed health system."

Patients' plight to find NHS care

Readers of The Scarborough News have expressed the difficulties they have found with accessing reliable NHS dentist care in the town.

One woman said: "I have been trying for three years to find a dentist. I am giving up and now focusing on my two little girls, who are far more important. I have had teeth removed during pregnancy and now I’m very conscious of my teeth also affecting my speech."

Another reader added: "I moved back here just over a year ago and couldn’t register with an NHS dentist, and even had trouble finding a private dentist. It’s an absolute disgrace."

One woman said she makes a three-hour round trip to access an NHS dentist, while another added that she was forced to borrow money to afford a private dentist after being left unable to access NHS care.