NHS bosses confident dental access will improve in Derby in the autumn
NHS bosses have reassured members of Derby City Council that access to dental services will improve in the autumn.
At a recent meeting of the council, local dentistry leaders suggested that it should be easier to get NHS dental appointments from October.
Leaders indicated that changes to the NHS dental contract will help to tackle problems and enable dentists to see more patients in Derby and other towns and cities, which have experienced access difficulties since the pandemic. Under new guidelines, dentists will be paid more for complex courses of treatment and dental therapists will be able to offer services previously only available from dentists. Services will include preventative treatments for children, fillings and sealants.
Earlier this year, councillors organised an urgent meeting to discuss deepening access issues, with many patients unable to find NHS dentists or make appointments. The most recent meeting was called to discuss the issue of childrens’ dental services in the city, which have been “badly affected” by the pandemic, according to an NHS report.
Chief dentist for the Midlands, Adam Morby, explained that new reforms to the NHS dental contract, which come into force in October will “make some improvements and inroads into the issues we are finding.” It is hoped that the changes will “increase the throughput of patients within practice.” This is crucial because more patients are coming forward for treatment and many of those who are seeing dentists need more complex treatment, which takes longer.
Rose-Marie Lynch, from NHS England and NHS Improvement Midlands, said that the uptake of schemes to boost capacity has been “quite limited” as a result of the small number of city practices. There are currently enough dentists working in the UK, Ms Lynch added, but it has become increasingly challenging to persuade dentists to stay within the NHS.
The new reforms and changes to recruitment regulations should help to bolster NHS dentist numbers in the future.
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