Dentists welcome CQC’s focus on NHS access crisis

The State of Care report identified high street dental and GP services as areas in which 'patients struggle to access non-urgent services', with knock-on effects on secondary care.

The report examined official data, showing that while the population has continued to grow, commissioning of NHS dental services has failed to keep pace. The CQC has found fewer Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) are now being commissioned per person, with 1.67 UDAs per person in 2012, falling to 1.56 per person in 2019.

This is the first time since the CQC started collecting data on primary healthcare services in 2011, that reports have placed such a heavy focus on access. Throughout that period the regulator has consistently reported that dental practices, when compared with other health providers, present a lower risk to patient safety.