16.06.15
Third of dentists advertising on NHS Choices turning patients away
A third of dentists advertised as accepting new patients are not, according to new research.
In March this year undercover researchers from Which? called 500 dental surgeries advertising on NHS Choices as accepting new NHS patients to see if they could book an appointment.
They found that three in ten (31%) practices didn’t have availability. Of those that did offer an appointment, 29% couldn’t see patients within two weeks, and one surgery said a new patient would be facing a wait of eight to nine months.
Their research also found practices making people jump through unnecessary hoops before booking an appointment, such as having to visit the surgery to fill out forms. Some researchers were even asked to pay deposits, and in one case were told this was non-refundable if an appointment was missed – both practices that are not permitted under current legislation.
Which? is calling on the Competition and Markets Authority to step in and ensure dentists comply with existing rules.
Long waiting lists for new patients were also an issue, and one practice was found to have a list 13 pages long and another that predicted a wait of two years. Some practices also suggested that researchers pay privately to see a dentist, despite specific requests for an NHS appointment.
The research was repeated in May to see if the information would improve when dentists got their new budgets, but the results actually declined. Nearly four in ten (37%) surgeries wouldn’t give researchers an NHS appointment and around a third (36%) couldn’t see new patients within a fortnight.
Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: “We found it’s frustratingly difficult to get an NHS appointment with a dentist as information about availability doesn’t reflect reality. This is a kick in the teeth for patients and yet more evidence of poor communication from the dental sector.
“We want the Competition and Markets Authority to step in and ensure that dentists put the existing rules into practice so that people can easily find out where they can get NHS dentistry.”
In a separate survey of consumers, Which? found four in ten (39%) people would use NHS Choices to find a new dentist. It also revealed that 45% of patients who tried to book an appointment with a new NHS dentist in the last year found it difficult and one in five (19%) new patients went without dental treatment because they couldn’t find an NHS dentist.
Serbjit Kaur, acting chief dental officer at NHS England, said: “This report looks at a random sample of 500 practices, whilst the most recent GP patient dental survey with a sample size of 246,773 (January 2015) found that of those who tried to obtain an appointment, 93% said they were successful.
"However it’s important that finding an NHS dentist should be a straightforward process and the report highlights the need for dental practices to ensure they are compliant with NHS contractual requirements and to do everything they can to make ongoing improvements to ensure a good quality service is available for all.”
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