The Department of Health and Social care (DHSC) has announced the roll out of 700,000 extra emergency appointments.

The announcement marks the start of the government delivering on its manifesto pledge to provide extra urgent and emergency dental appointments to address the crisis in NHS dentistry.

NHS England has written to integrated care boards (ICB) across the country, directing health chiefs in each region to set up thousands of urgent appointments over the next year.

Stephen Kinnock, minister of state for care, said, “We promised we would end the misery faced by hundreds of thousands of people unable to get urgent dental care. We’re starting to deliver on that commitment.

“NHS dentistry has been left broken after years of neglect, with patients left in pain without appointments, or queueing around the block just to be seen.

“Through our Plan for Change, this government will rebuild dentistry - focusing on prevention, retention of NHS dentists and reforming the NHS contract to make NHS work more appealing to dentists and increase capacity for more patients. This will take time but today marks an important step towards getting NHS dentistry back on its feet.”

The government has said that the urgent dental appointments will be available from April 2025 and will be targeted at ‘dental deserts’ – areas where patients particularly struggle to access NHS dentists. This includes parts of the East of England, such as Norfolk and Waveney, where there are just 31 NHS dentists respectively for every 100,000 people – way below the national average.

The extra appointments will be for patients who are likely to be in pain – including those suffering from infections or needing urgent repairs to a bridge – and require urgent treatment.

Nigel Carter, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation, said, “This is an encouraging step towards improving access to NHS dentistry and will make a real difference for patients in urgent need.

“However, it barely scratches the surface of the crisis facing NHS dentistry. Millions are still struggling to access routine care, and urgent appointments alone won’t solve the deeper issues in the system. We need a long-term strategy that prioritises prevention and ensures everyone can get the dental care they need before problems become emergencies.”

According to the Association of Dental Groups (ADG), examination of the details reveals that there is none of the new funding that was promised pre-election. The urgent appointments will be covered by existing budgets that would have been allocated for routine care, and the announcement fails to provide any support to grow the dental workforce to enable the turnaround that UK dentistry needs.

Neil Carmichael, executive chair of the ADG, said, “Whilst the ADG recognises today’s pledges as some progress towards resolving the UK’s dentistry crisis, our association’s concern is that the government is leaning on dental practices to fund urgent and routine care through their businesses’ ‘mixed economy’ structure.

“Without proper reform, realistic funding and a focus on the inadequate dental workforce (remember, there are currently over 3,000 vacant dentist positions that we are unable to fill) we cannot hope to see significant progress in getting dentistry in the UK back on its feet in the near future.”

Jason Wong, chief dental officer for England, said, “Dentists are working hard to help as many patients as possible, but too many people experience difficulties in accessing NHS dental services.

“It is vital that we do more to improve access – we are working with local systems to prioritise this, which includes providing 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments to help make it quicker and easier for those most in need to be seen and treated on the NHS and we are incentivising dentists to work in underserved areas so that all areas of the country can receive the care they need.”

The government has said after inheriting an NHS dental sector in crisis, it is acting to make it fit for the future, following years of neglect and unsuccessful interventions.

A recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that access to NHS dentistry remains below pre-pandemic levels, with the previous administration’s dental recovery plan not on course to deliver its target of 1.5m extra treatments by the end of 2024/25.

John Makin, head of the DDU, said, “We welcome the announcement about an increase in numbers of urgent dental appointments as there is a dire need to address gaps in access to NHS dentistry. However, while this may address some of the funding needs which prevent people accessing NHS care, it doesn’t address some of the fundamental causes of why colleagues are stepping away from providing that care.

“The reasons for that include dental professionals being frustrated about being unable to meet patient need under the current system. Added to that is the hostile dento-legal climate in which the ever-increasing demands on dentistry have led to a corresponding rise in complaints. Dental professionals are also concerned about action by the GDC, which is working with an outdated regulatory system.

“Reforms to the clinical negligence system and a fairer, more timely and more proportionate model of regulation could help ease the burden on our dental practitioners and our NHS.”

Author: