Shropshire woman goes private after 96 unanswered calls to dental helpline
A woman from Shropshire had to pay for private dental treatment after making 96 unanswered calls to an emergency helpline.
Liz Lewis, from Clungunford, developed severe toothache at the end of January. She tried to get an appointment with her regular dentist, but was told that the dentist was ill and advised to contact the Dental Advice Line for Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin.
On Monday 30th January, Liz called the helpline hoping to get an urgent appointment but the call kept ringing off. She tried for over two hours, getting the same message every time, which said that the demand was very high. The line cut off. After 96 calls to the helpline, Liz gave up and started calling local dental practices.
Eventually, Liz got an appointment at a private dental clinic and she ended up paying almost £200 to have a tooth extracted.
Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust said that Monday morning was the busiest time for the phone line but confirmed that there were no faults or problems reported on January 30th. Having heard about Liz’s case, the trust has promised to review waiting times and queues and change the message to encourage patients to avoid peak times, such as between 8am and 10am on Monday mornings.
Liz said that she was able to pay for her treatment but worried about others will find themselves in the same situation without the means to cover the cost of private care.
A 2022 survey carried out by the BBC and the British Dental Association found that up to 90% of dental practices in the UK are not accepting new adult NHS patients.
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