The UK Government, in partnership with the National Health Service (NHS), is set to provide 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments across England to address the growing demand for emergency dental care. This initiative forms part of the government’s broader efforts to tackle the NHS dentistry crisis and improve access to services for patients in urgent need.
NHS England has directed Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to create thousands of ‘urgent appointment’ slots over the next year. Each ICB will receive a target tailored to the local population’s unmet dental care needs, with a focus on areas where residents face significant challenges in securing NHS dental appointments. Patients will be able to access these urgent slots through local dental practices.
This new initiative comes after previous attempts to address the issue, such as an £88m ($111.29m) patient premium, which were largely unsuccessful in resolving the crisis. In response to a decline in new patients accessing NHS dental services, the government has decided to move away from the premium and instead focus on providing additional appointments.
The extra appointments, which will be available from April, are particularly aimed at addressing ‘dental deserts’—areas with a severe shortage of NHS dentists. Regions like Norfolk and Waveney in the East of England are among the hardest-hit areas in need of this additional support.
Stephen Kinnock, the UK Minister for Care, commented: “NHS dentistry has been left broken after years of neglect, with patients left in pain without appointments or queuing for hours just to be seen. Through our Plan for Change, we will rebuild NHS dentistry—prioritising prevention, retaining NHS dentists, and reforming the NHS contract to make it more appealing to dentists, all while increasing capacity to serve more patients.”
This new approach aims to resolve the growing disparity in access to NHS dental care, which has led to distressing scenes like those recently witnessed at St Paul’s Dental Practice in Bristol, where police had to manage crowds of patients desperately seeking dental attention.
Kinnock added, “This is an important step towards rebuilding NHS dentistry, but we know it will take time. Today marks the beginning of our commitment to restoring NHS dental services for all.”
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