Healthwatch England report shows NHS dental crisis growing

The report opens with the statement, “Recovery of NHS dental care too slow to help thousands left in pain”. The foreword then continues by highlighting that children are at particular risk, “with desperate parents unable to register their children with an NHS dentist as local practices aren’t taking on new patients, have gone private or have closed down”.

The report establishes that “data from NHS Digital shows that the number of appointments for children have fallen by 44 per cent in the last year.”

The report continues, “The big worry about the shortage of NHS appointments leading people, who can afford, to private dental care is that it further deepens the health inequalities that COVID-19 starkly highlighted. It is also far from the direction the Marmot report calls for.