Patients in Sussex to benefit from thousands of extra urgent dental appointments over next year

Health Minister Stephen Kinnock said on Friday, February 21, that the government and NHS is rolling out 700,000 extra urgent appointments.

The plan is part of the government’s manifesto pledge and NHS England has now written to integrated care boards (ICB) across the country, directing health chiefs in each region to stand up thousands of urgent appointments over the next year.

DHSC said statistics from the GP Patient Survey 2024 show that around one in four patients in the South East who tried to see an NHS dentist in the past two years were not able to do so.

Stephen Kinnock, Minister of State for Care said: “We promised we would end the misery faced by hundreds of thousands of people unable to get urgent dental care. Today we’re delivering on that commitment.

“NHS dentistry has been left broken after years of neglect, with patients left in pain without appointments, or queueing around the block just to be seen. Thanks to this intervention, patients across the South East will benefit from thousands more emergency appointments.

“Through our Plan for Change, this government will rebuild dentistry – focusing on prevention, retention of NHS dentists and reforming the NHS contract to make NHS work more appealing to dentists and increase capacity for more patients. This will take time, but today marks an important step towards getting NHS dentistry back on its feet.”

DHSC said previous interventions, like the new patient premium, have failed to address the crisis in NHS dentistry. They said data published recently showed the number of new patients accessing NHS dentists has fallen by three per cent since the scheme was introduced. The government said it will scrap the new patient premium.

Extra appointments will be available from April and have been targeted at areas where patients struggle to access NHS dentists. Each ICB has a target of urgent appointments to roll out, which are based on estimated local levels of unmet need for urgent NHS care. Sussex ICB has 26,546 additional urgent care appointments to be purchased.

DHSC said the extra appointments are be for patients who are likely to be in pain, which includes those suffering from infections or who need urgent repairs to a bridge, and those who require urgent treatment.

Jason Wong, Chief Dental Officer for England said: “Dentists are working hard to help as many patients as possible but too many people experience difficulties in accessing NHS dental services.

“It is vital that we do more to improve access – we are working with local systems to prioritise this, which includes providing 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments to help make it quicker and easier for those most in need to be seen and treated on the NHS and we are incentivising dentists to work in underserved areas so that all areas of the country can receive the care they need.”

DHSC said the government is also recruiting new dentists to areas that need them most and ‘will reform the dental contract, with a shift to focusing on prevention and the retention of NHS dentists’. They said: “This includes the golden hello bonus incentive payment of £20,000, which is being offered per dentist for up to 240 dentists who agree to work in areas of the country that have traditionally been hard to recruit to. Until July, none of the 240 roles had been filled, but the government has since delivered 68 posts, with more to come.”

Jacob Lant, Chief Executive of National Voices, said: “NHS dentistry has been left in a sorry state, with far too many people experiencing pain and discomfort because they can't access basic care. These extra urgent appointments will be welcome and are a helpful first step, but fixing the nation's oral health crisis will require a sustained effort. We now need local NHS leaders to work creatively to ensure available capacity is targeting those most in need, whether treating an infected tooth or ensuring cancer and transplant patients get the dental check-ups they need before starting treatment.”