Which? Survey Suggests NHS Fails to Direct Patients to Dentists
Research suggests that patients in England still face problems when finding an NHS dentist.
Access to an NHS dentist is an ongoing problem in the UK. NHS Choices now offers information about which dentists are accepting new NHS patients to help patients navigate their way around the system.
However, consumer group Which? found there are 7,500 NHS practices providing NHS services, but only 4,500 of these were advertising themselves as able to see NHS patients.
Undercover researchers from Which? contacted 500 of them, randomly chosen throughout the country.
The research began after Which? published an investigation in January indicating 50 percent of patients who had visited a dentist within the last six months hadn’t seen a price list, and one fifth had been unsure about the costs before treatment started.
Along with some not having availability, 29 percent of practices that could take on new NHS patients had waiting lists of at least two weeks. One even said it would be eight to nine months before the patient could be treated.
Some practices also made patients “jump through unnecessary hoops” like asking them to pay deposits or visit the surgery to fill out forms.
Executive director of Which?, Richard Lloyd, said the researchers found it difficult to get a dental appointment due to the fact that availability information did not reflect reality.
Which? would like the Competition and Markets Authority to ensure dentists actively practice the existing rules so people can find out where to get NHS dentistry easily.
However, chair of the British Dental Association, Mick Armstrong said that often the system works against dentists as they are only paid for a set amount of patient visits and would not get paid if these were breached.
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