St Helens residents struggle to find NHS dental places
The residents of St Helens are struggling to find NHS dental places with no local practices taking on new patients.
The NHS website suggests that none of the 25 practices listed in St Helens, Whiston and Prescot are currently offering new adult NHS patient places. Some practices have spaces for children and urgent cases but none are providing routine services for patients who are not already registered.
The latest data indicates that the closest practices that have NHS places available for adults are located in Liverpool and West Kirby.
The shortage of NHS adult places is a national problem. A study by the BBC and the British Dental Association revealed that around 90% of practices across the country had no capacity in summer 2022.
The lack of available dental places in the North West is leaving patients with a difficult decision. Some are considering going private but the cost is significantly higher than NHS care and others are resorting to DIY dentistry. There has been a significant rise in the number of people treating dental pain and infections using over the counter pain relief and extracting teeth at home. Some patients are living with pain because they can’t get an appointment or afford to see a private dentist.
Dental patients are able to visit surgeries outside of their local area but there are few practices within 30-60 miles that are accepting new adult NHS patients and for some people, it’s impossible to travel long distances for dental treatment.
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