Dentists are back in the spotlight as Healthwatch Brighton and Hove asks patient to complete a short survey.
The watchdog set up the survey to see whether changes that were announced in November have started to make a difference.
And it reached out to patients today (Wednesday 4 January) as a report about the future of dentistry locally was deferred for two months.
The report was due to be discussed by the new integrated care board, NHS Sussex. It said: “People’s ability to access dental services is often not as good as it should be.”
The report said that the NHS was commissioning the equivalent of an extra 10 full-time dentists across Sussex, with almost a quarter of the extra appointments for patients in Brighton and Hove.
It also cautioned that improvements would take time, with some of the work not starting until the new financial year in April.
The watchdog said: “Healthwatch in Sussex is working to gather the latest insight into people’s experiences of using or seeking to access NHS dental services in our county.
“We want to hear from anyone who has had contact with any NHS dental services since (Thursday) 1 December 2022.
“Our goal is to learn whether changes to dentistry announced in November 2022 are leading to any beneficial local changes.
“Your feedback will help us tell decision-makers how things currently are for local people.
“Please spend five minutes to complete our short five-question poll so that we can hear how things are for you.
“We want to know
- Who is trying to use NHS dental services?
- People’s levels of satisfaction with NHS dentistry
- Confidence about using NHS dental services in the future
…
“Tell us here. If you require support or can offer feedback on dentistry or any other health or care service that you have used, please contact Healthwatch Brighton and Hove.”
For the Healthwatch Brighton and Hove website, click here. Healthwatch can also be reached by phone on 01273 234040 or by email at info@healthwatchbrightonandhove.co.uk.
This morning, the new integrated care board NHS Sussex was due to discuss the state of dentistry at a meeting in public.
But the board deferred the debate to focus on the “critical incident” in the local NHS, which was declared last Friday (30 December), and the upcoming strikes by nurses and ambulance staff.
The dentistry report, published last week, said that NHS officials were putting together a “local dental commissioning plan” following the recent government announcement on the first phase of “dental system reform”.
The reforms are intended to pay more dentists to see more patients, improve minimum pay for some common types of dental work and improve online information provided by dental practices for patients.
NHS Sussex is one of the first integrated care boards in the country to be given permission to take over the commissioning of dental care from regional officials.
The report on dentistry, by Charlotte Keeble, said: “We are aware of the restrictions on routine dentistry during the pandemic where people’s ability to access dental services was limited.
“All dental practices were required to close for face-to-face care at the beginning of the first national lockdown (March 2020).
“Dental practices continued to provide telephone advice to patients with an urgent need, including advice on pain relief and prescribing antibiotics where clinically appropriate.
“This has resulted in significant backlog in respect of routine dental treatment. After the requirements to close ended, NHS dental providers reopened but were required to operate in a covid-19 secure manner, with additional safety protocols.
“This reduced the appointment capacity that dental providers have been able to offer and, while it has been increasing over the past nine months, people are still reporting they are unable to be seen by a local NHS dentist.
“Healthwatch in East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove provide a series of reports on local dental access issues raised by our communities.”
The report also said that steps had been taken “to restore dental service provision across the region which include procuring additional ‘units of dental activity’”.
It said: “Funding has been offered to all dental practices across the south east region to increase access by providing additional sessions outside of their normal contracted hours, for example, in the evening or at weekends.
“These sessions are for
- people who do not have a regular dentist and have an urgent need but have experienced difficulty accessing this
- people who have only been able to receive temporary care (such as a temporary filling) and require further treatment
- looked-after children
- people with an urgent clinical need such as those that need to be dentally fit prior to undergoing cancer treatment or cardiac surgery
…
“Our work with NHS England continues to effect positive change which includes developing the procurement pipeline to increase the level of permanently contracted dental activity to enable more people to access care.
“This procurement is a mixture of replacing recently handed back contracts, which have tended to be from dental practices in West Sussex, and commissioning additional capacity.
“This demonstrates the proactive approach commissioners are taking to address dental access.”
In addition, the report said: “We have identified dental access as an area of prioritisation and through our ‘discovery work’ we will undertake further work with our partners and community members to develop local commissioning plans in line with our population need and demand for dental services.”
The plans would also have to be “within the financial envelope and contract set nationally” and would “be supported by dental clinicians, stakeholders and patient representatives”.
NHS Sussex plans to hold three dental workshops – one in Brighton and Hove – so that feedback can be collected to inform an “engagement report” and areas of prioritisation for the “commissioning plan”.
The report added: “This is a medium-term plan with dental contracts set to mobilise in April 2023.
“It is unlikely however to address nor mitigate against dental access in its entirety nor instantly, given the required process and timelines associated with procurement.”
