People throughout the region have gone years without a dental appointment due to a significant backlog of appointments, huge waiting lists, and not enough practices. Recurring stories of people fitting fillings and extracting their teeth without anaesthetic or professional training have become the norm.
NHS officials say the situation in County Durham is reflective of a national crisis in NHS Dentistry which has been heavily impacted by several factors including the recruitment and retention of dentists and Covid.
As of November 2024, there were 47 NHS General Dental Service contracts in County Durham. A total of 705,348 Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) were commissioned – a measure of the amount of work done during dental treatment.
Yet, the county-wide issues are due to be further compounded after two dental practices announced they will terminate their NHS contracts. Burgess and Hyder branches in Bowburn and Spennymoor will both end NHS treatment on 31 January.
An NHS report states: “We are regularly seeing dental providers giving notice on their NHS contracts as they are unable to meet local demand and the provision we have commissioned from them.
“This means local people are experiencing problems accessing NHS dentists areas of particular challenge include North Cumbria, North Northumberland, Darlington, parts of County Durham and Sunderland.”
A Government-led improvement programme of dentistry includes providing one-off payments for up to 240 dentists across the country to work in underserved areas for up to three years. Labour also pledged funding for an additional 700,000 urgent care appointments.
In Darlington, a short-term Urgent Dental Access Centre has been commissioned as part of a pilot to improve access to dentistry. It is hoped the new service could provide an enhanced and more reliable local solution to the provision of accessible in-hours urgent dental care for patients. If successful, a similar service in County Durham could be introduced.
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Dental practices are being encouraged to prioritise patients for treatment based on clinical need and urgency, so appointments for some routine treatments, such as dental check-ups, may still be delayed. Some practices are operating waiting lists to manage patients requesting routine NHS dental care.
The report adds: “The prolonged Covid- 19 pandemic period required NHS dental practices to follow strict Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) guidance which significantly restricted levels of access to dental care. As a result, backlog demand for dental care remains high with the urgency and increased complexity of patient clinical presentations further impacting the ability for the NHS Dental Care system to return to pre-Covid operational norms.
“There is widespread recognition that the national dental contract requires reform – UDA system not seen as attractive by the dental market (providers and dental performers).”