Parents are being pressured by dentists to pay for private appointments in exchange for their children being seen on the NHS, according to a new report showing widespread shortcomings in care.
New figures show that large swathes of the country have no NHS appointments.
Across England there has been a 44 per cent fall in the number of children treated by dentists this year compared with 2019. It amounts to a decline of more than three million appointments. The number of adults treated has fallen 17 per cent, or 3.7 million cases.
Healthwatch England, the patient watchdog, has called for urgent action. The health service says dentists should not offer NHS treatment to children on condition that a parent becomes a private patient but Healthwatch England says it has received multiple complaints from parents about “unfair tactics”.
In one example a parent in Yorkshire said there were no appointments for their ten-year-old daughter and husband across the Ripon, Harrogate, Boroughbridge, Bedale region, adding: “One dentist said they could add us to a list that had a three-year wait for an appointment.
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“Another told me that the only way that my daughter could be seen would be if myself and my husband took a private place at a cost of £75 for an initial consultation each. This is disgraceful and holding people to ransom for their children to be able to access dental treatment.”
Less than a fifth of the 5,421 dentists listed on the NHS.uk website say they would take on children as NHS patients and this drops to just 11 per cent for adults.
In a report published today Healthwatch said it had received more than 230 reports linked to children between April and September this year alone.
It also said that some patients were unable to access emergency treatment and had ended up in A&E: “In extreme cases, one person has pulled their own teeth out, and another was admitted to a hospital because they did not get the proper treatment on time.”
Pamela Carr, 58, had to endure “horrific” pain throughout Christmas last year after she was delisted by her dentist during the pandemic. Carr, from Carlisle, said she called every dentist in her area including those up to an hour away. She eventually got an emergency appointment and is now paying for dental insurance. David Wisdom, 72, a former police officer, called every dentist within 30 miles of his home in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire, after finding he had been deregistered.
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“One or two said they could take us on as private patients but there’s a long waiting list for that,” he said. “I must have made 30 calls but I have given up trying.”
Sir Robert Francis, the watchdog’s chairman, said: “Healthwatch is increasingly hearing from desperate parents reporting that their kids are missing school and suffering in pain because of dental problems that are entirely preventable.”
Dentists say they are being forced to work under a flawed contract that discourages them from taking on more patients. Negotiations with ministers on a new contract are continuing.
