A Healthwatch Norfolk survey has shown local residents are still struggling to access NHS dental care. The research shows practices accepting NHS patients have thousands of people on their waiting lists.

The survey discovered that no practices are accepting new NHS patients, more practices have opted to only take private patients, and concerns about this represent around a third of all enquiries it receives.

The organisation, set up to hear the views of people across the county and feed them back to health and social care leaders to help shape services, decided to take another look at the issue.

Its team contacted around fifty practices selected at random but drawn from different council areas across the county. Healthwatch wanted to gather evidence for the Government’s Health and Social Care Select Committee to give a snapshot of the issues people are being faced.

It repeated the process in 2024 to find out how things have changed.

The key findings:

  • No practices contacted by Healthwatch Norfolk are registering new NHS patients of any age in Norfolk. One is offering a check-up service for children but cannot register them as patients.
  • More practices have left the NHS dental system and are only offering private appointments.
  • Healthwatch Norfolk is hearing fewer complaints from patients struggling to get emergency appointments. But some people are finding it challenging to get one.
  • Six per cent of practices could not take on 111 emergencies referred to them, and 20 per cent had stopped seeing private patients.
  • Around 43 per cent of its enquiries between January 2023 and January 2024 related to people unable to access NHS dental care. Around the same as the number of enquiries received in the previous 12 months.
  • The team also found there were long waiting lists to register as an NHS patient for an NHS appointment at some practices. West Earlham Dental Practice in Norwich had 4,000 people waiting, and Dentistry For You in Marham, near Swaffham, had almost 6,000 people on its list.

The findings follow the government’s ‘Dental Recovery Plan,’ which promised improvements. A long-term action plan to tackle the issue in Norfolk is also due to be announced by the county’s NHS bosses in spring 2024.

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