Healthwatch Rutland has highlighted delays in the creation of the local ‘Dental Access Plan', and in securing a new provider to improve appointment availability in Rutland.

At a meeting of the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR), Janet Underwood, chair of Healthwatch Rutland, talked about the unaffordability of private dentistry for many people and relayed individuals’ experiences of trying to get an NHS dental appointment in Rutland.

She said, "Some people are in pain … absolutely desperate. They are ringing here, there and everywhere and can’t get one.”

Janet also highlighted that Rutland has the lowest rate of access to NHS dentistry of all the areas of LLR, with just 20 per cent of people in the county having dentistry funded by the NHS in the second half of last year.

The NHS promised a local Dental Access Plan as part of the overall ‘Five Year Plan’ published in 2023. This is waiting for the creation of an Oral Health Needs Assessment to identify pockets of need and plan actions to address them. The assessment, originally planned for autumn last year, won’t be available until after August 2024.

Meanwhile, Healthwatch Rutland has said the long-awaited process to procure a new dentist to increase appointment capacity in Rutland has moved slowly, with new provision expected to begin in 2025.

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