Concerns NHS find a dentist website a ‘work of fiction’

Dentists say the NHS website showing whether practices are taking on new NHS patients is a “work of fiction”.

Of 34 north-east of England practices on the website said to be “accepting new NHS patients when availability allows”, only three actually had space in their books.

The British Dental Association (BDA) said adding “when availability allows” was an attempt to conceal the scale of the problem and had confused patients.

NHS England (NHSE) did not explain why the wording was changed or why so few dentists actually had availability, but said it provided practices with tools and support to routinely update whether they were accepting new patients.

BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: “The data on [the website] is a work of fiction.

“The last government dropped straightforward yes/no questions on whether practices can take new patients, to try and cover the scale of the access crisis.

“A new government won’t fix this just by playing around with words on a website.”

Earlier this month, the BBC contacted the 34 dentists in the North East said to be accepting new patients.

Only three actually were, all of which were in Newcastle.

None of the 24 dentists in the Northumberland, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Durham or Stockton areas were taking on new patients.

One said it had a waiting list of four years.

There were no dentists accepting new adult NHS patients in the Darlington and Middlesbrough areas.

Trade body Association of Dental Groups (ADG), which represents both NHS and private dental services, said there were not enough NHS dentists around to “meet demands”.

Executive chair Neil Carmichael said he was not surprised that patients trying to access an NHS dentist by contacting a practice were being met with a “sorry, no availability message”.

“NHSE may be either slow or reluctant to update their website with these depressing facts, and it is our ADG members who own the dental practices that are having to deliver the bad news to patients,” he said.

Earlier this year, Verne Road Dental Practice in North Shields dropped existing NHS patients over financial and staffing strains, and invited them to sign up for a private plan.

Leah Duncan was one of the patients removed from the NHS list.

“It feels like betrayal because we pay our taxes into the NHS and then you suddenly can’t get treatment on it,” Miss Duncan said.

“I’m hoping because I’ve got alright teeth that I have time to look around for another NHS one.”

The practice said: “It was either that we close our doors and deliver no service to the community or we change the way we work.”

North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) took over dental services from NHS England in 2023.

It said: “Due to the demand for NHS services, the database can go out of date quickly and we know that can be frustrating for patients.”

The ICB says it is doing “all it can” to improve access including incentivising dentists and opening a network of 23 urgent dental access centres.

An NHS spokesperson added that it was “determined to improve access to NHS dentistry”, including by providing 700,000 urgent appointments.