Health bosses have insisted they are doing everything possible to attract NHS dentists to set up in North Yorkshire after admitting there is a growing backlog of patients awaiting treatment.
After grilling NHS bosses responsible for dentistry across the region, North Yorkshire’s scrutiny of health committee concluded the health service needs to take “extremely urgent” action to address dire access to services.
It comes as the Stray Ferret revealed in March that just two NHS dentists in the Harrogate district were accepting new patients — and both have a waiting time of at least two-and-a-half years.
At the time, Cllr John Ennis, chair of the health scrutiny committee for North Yorkshire, described the findings as “shocking”.
‘Residents demand explanations’
The health committee meeting heard that over the past 12 months, practices in North Yorkshire had started handing back NHS contracts and others had been terminated for failing to provide contracted services.
Of the 100 remaining dentistry NHS contracts in the county, some only take children as NHS patients if their parents pay for private treatment and others that do take adult NHS patients report waiting lists of more than 8,000 patients.
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Cllr Tony Randerson told the meeting that residents were demanding explanations as to why parents were having to take children as young as six to places such as Middlesbrough and face bills of £100 for check-ups.
He called on the county council to put pressure on the government to improve access to NHS dentistry.
Cllr Randerson said:
“The government has got a responsibility to look after not only the small few that can afford private treatment, but everybody. It is a duty of care.
“It’s absolutely criminal that these people are having to travel as far away as Hull or Leeds if they are fortunate enough to get an appointment, and not necessarily NHS appointments. This cannot be allowed to go on.”
The meeting heard access to NHS dentistry had been grave in some areas for many years.
NHS dentistry commissioner Debbie Pattinson said that due to nationally imposed pandemic restrictions practices were continuing to operate at about 60 per cent capacity.
She emphasised practices had been asked to prioritise those in need of urgent care.
Ms Pattinson said:
“We’ve got a growing backlog, a growing number of people who want a regular check up and cant get one.
“It is unprecedented. We’ve not known anything like it in North Yorkshire with the contracts coming back.”
Managing perceptions
However, she added NHS bosses were working to manage “public perceptions”.
She said:
“Dentistry isn’t free. It is a subsidised service.”
Ms Pattinson said finding replacement practices was proving difficult as due to covid restrictions “nobody wants to take on more activity”.
Nevertheless, she said the NHS hoped to have commissioned some out of hours urgent care appointments on Saturdays at a number of different clinics in bigger towns across North Yorkshire by the beginning of October.
To target inequality, North Yorkshire and Humber Local Dental Network chairman Simon Hearnshaw said the NHS was looking at introducing a dentistry programme for children linking a practice to a school, supporting supervised brushing, increasing fluoride, and supporting access to care.
He added the NHS was “trying extremely hard” to improve provision, which included examining incentivising practices to set up in areas of county with no NHS dental cover.
