Review of dental services in Bath and North East Somerset November 2020
Since January, we have heard from eighteen patients about their experiences of either trying to register with an NHS dentist or get an appointment.
On initial lockdown, there was a delay while dentists put in place guidelines of good practice, and NHS England informed us that dentists would be opening again in June 2020.
However, with dentists continuing to experience issues as they comply with infection control guidelines, the number of patients they can see in one day has reduced. Many dentists have postponed seeing patients for routine check-up appointments and preventative dental treatment to allow them to deal with the most urgent patients.
Many of you have shared your frustrations in finding an NHS dentist who will register them as an NHS patient. With fourteen patients across Bath and North East Somerset feeding back that they have been unable to register with a dentist as an NHS patient.
- A patient trying to find an NHS dentist for their child was told she would need to register as a private patient to allow her child to become an NHS patient.
- Others shared that they had to wait until they were in pain before a dentist would see them, including a patient with a broken tooth.
Healthwatch signposted a family to NHS 111 for emergency treatment for their child, who was in pain. The family fed back that the call to NHS 111 was disappointing. The child received no emergency treatment or anything to ease the pain. The family was advised by NHS 111 to take the child to a private dentist. The child was seen and treated by a private dentist at the cost of over £200.
Because of COVID-19, a patient waited several months for a replacement filling. As part of the infection control, there was no drill with water spray used or any mouthwash available for rinsing, but the patient feedback was that they were happy to have been treated.
We were contacted by the community worker of a Polish family who was having trouble finding an NHS dentist. The family was willing to travel and were signposted to the NHS website ‘Find a Dentist’ page to see if there are dentists in surrounding areas to Bath and North East Somerset who may be taking NHS patients.
We fed back all of what we heard from the public to the South West Dental Committee meeting on Wednesday 9 September, and the Bath, Swindon and Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group for primary care. We continue to receive regular telephone calls and emails from patients still trying to access dental services.
If you have a story about dental services that you would like to share with Healthwatch Bath and North East Somerset please contact us:
Website: www.healthwatchbathnes.co.uk
Email: info@healthwatchbathnes.co.uk
Tel: 01225 232401
Twitter: @Hwatchbathnes
Facebook: Healthwatch BANES
Text: text ba+your story to 07860 021 603
Post: Freepost RSBS-YBHY-RYLL
Healthwatch Bathnes
The Care Forum
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