Dentists will conduct an extra 350,000 appointments under a new ‘treatment blitz’ to tackle the enormous pandemic backlog.
The NHS yesterday pledged an extra £50million for urgent dental care until the end of March.
Dentists will be paid one third more to work out-of-hours – in the evenings and at the weekends – to help clear the backlog.
Since lockdown, more than 38 million NHS appointments were lost due to infection control protocols. It will take many years for the backlog to be cleared.
More than half of Britons have been unable to see a dentist in the past year, with one in five resorting to ‘DIY dentistry’ including pulling out their own teeth. But until yesterday, not a single penny of the Government’s multi-billion pound NHS catch-up programme had been allocated to dentistry.
England’s chief dental officer Sara Hurley said: ‘Dental services are a vital part of the NHS providing oral health care to all age groups, and that’s why we have taken this unprecedented action’
Funding will help to restore services to their pre-pandemic level, with vulnerable people and children being given preference for slots.
England’s chief dental officer Sara Hurley said: ‘Dental services are a vital part of the NHS providing oral health care to all age groups, and that’s why we have taken this unprecedented action.’
The pandemic saw a drop in the number of procedures, dropping to 69%. Dentists were forced to shut down their offices completely during the initial lockdown.
Before the pandemic, dental care was in dire straits. The only NHS part that is operating with a budget less than 10 years ago is dentistry.
Many surgeries say it is no longer financially viable to offer NHS treatment, leading to an ‘exodus’ of dentists to the private sector.
Shawn Charlwood, from the British Dental Association, said yesterday’s funding package ‘must be just the start if we are to rebuild a service millions depend on.’
He added: ‘Hard-pressed practices are working against the clock, and many will struggle to find capacity ahead of April for this investment to make a difference.’