Where’s my NHS Dentist?

Shocking new figures have revealed that more than 100,000 children in Surrey Heartlands have not been seen by an NHS dentist for at least a year. The research, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, is based on latest data from the health service. 

The NHS recommends that under-18s see a dentist at least once a year. Indeed,
tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions for children aged
6-10.

Despite this, the research revealed that a staggering 45.3% of children in our area may not have seen a dentist for a year.

A local resident told us, “I had to pay privately for my 5yr old daughter to have a check up. Since Covid, our local dentists have been inundated and refusing to register new NHS patients.

“Of course, as soon as I said I would pay privately, I had my pick of appointments. My dentist is lovely but she explained that her practice couldn’t survive on a government funded NHS contract alone.” 

And the situation for adults is even worse. Surrey Heartlands has the second lowest provision for adult NHS dentistry in England. 66.2% of our adult friends and neighbours (that’s more than 520,000 people) have been obliged to pay privately or simply gone without dental care in the past two years.

The same local resident said,

“My mother has a broken tooth but again cannot find an NHS dentist and she cannot afford to pay privately. So, she’s just left to suffer.” 

Local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Chris Coghlan said,

“Every parent knows how important it is to ensure that their children can see a dentist when they need to. Leaving children in pain disrupts their eating, sleeping and learning.

“This Conservative government has shown a total disregard for every aspect of our health service and ordinary people, who cannot afford private medical care, are bearing the brunt of it. Wherever you look, the NHS is crumbling.

“A rescue package for NHS dentistry is urgently needed. That starts with spending the £400 million of funding for NHS dental services that went unspent last year. And, we need real reform of NHS dentist contracts to boost the number of appointments along with many more training places for new dentists.”