24 January 2024 , 14:17
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Millions of patients fed up with waiting to see their NHS dentists have given up waiting for appointments, according to new data.
A yearly survey of patients on their experience trying to get an appointment showed 19% said they did not try to make an NHS dental appointment in the last two years. Of those, 22% said it was because they did not think they would be able to get one. The number is up from 18% in 2022, and 13% in 2021.
But between 2013 and 2020, around 93% of patients who tried to make an appointment with an NHS dentist in the previous two years had managed to do so. Only around 5% said they had been unable to get an appointment.
The situation varies across the country. The survey showed patients in the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board area had the toughest time trying to book NHS dental appointments last year. More than a third (35%) of patients tried and failed to see an NHS dentist. The Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, and Cambridgeshire & Peterborough ICB areas had the joint next highest failure rates at 32%, followed by Somerset with 31%.
In contrast, in Coventry and Warwickshire only 12% of people responding to the survey said they had tried and failed to book an NHS dentist appointment in the last two years. In South Yorkshire, Hertfordshire and West Essex, the Black Country, and Mid and South Essex it was 16%, and in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent it was 17%.
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It comes as the cost of hospitals removing children’s rotten teeth has doubled amid a collapse in access to NHS dentistry in the past five years. NHS spent £81million on child extractions in 2021/22, the latest government figures show.
Around £50million was spent as a result of tooth decay alone. The rise from £36million in 2016/17 comes as 40% of children are no longer able to access regular NHS dental check-ups. Oral health surveys for England over a similar period show around 23% of five-year-olds have untreated tooth decay. Rates were highest in Yorkshire and the North West.
Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Across the NHS, we’re paying more but getting less. Instead of supporting Labour’s plans to prevent tooth decay, the Conservatives choose to waste taxpayers’ money and put children through unnecessary misery.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman previously said: “We want every adult and child who needs an NHS dentist to get one regardless of where in England they live. We have already taken steps to improve access and incentivise practices to deliver more NHS dental care.”