Over 4,000 People on Waiting Lists for Dental Treatment in Plymouth
More than 4,000 people are waiting to register with a dentist in Plymouth.
According to statistics from the NHS database, around 4,500 people are on the waiting list for treatment and some people have been waiting for more than seven months.
Health bosses say that the figure is an improvement on last year’s statistics, as the numbers have fallen from 6,300. However, the length of time people are waiting on the list has increased. Health bosses have attributed the increased waiting time to the fact that people are not registering straight away when places become available.
NHS figures also suggest that there has been a decrease in the proportion of people attending regular dental visits from 55% to 53%. The decline in dental visits has been attributed to patients putting off treatment as a result of cost.
NHS Plymouth has released a report to outline new measures to encourage patients to get in touch with practices that have places available and join their registers. Vicki Johnson, dental lead at NHS Plymouth, said that there are around 4,500 people on the waiting list and they are being allocated places based on the length of time they have been on the list. Currently, patients who joined in March 2011 are being offered places.
Several dentists have reported that patients who have been offered places have not turned up to register and for this reason, many prefer to accept patients who contact them directly, rather than using the database.
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