Treatment levels given by NHS dentists in Sussex are still lower than before the pandemic

The information was shared during a West Sussex County Council health and adult social care scrutiny committee meeting on Wednesday (January 8).

Carole Crathern, head of primary care at NHS Sussex, said dentists in West Sussex held 104 contracts for services and were expected to deliver a total of 1.1m units of dental activity (UDAs) during the year.

The number of units delivered depends on the amount of treatment given. For example, a check-up might be one unit while a filling might be three – 7,000 units equate to one full-time dentist.

Ms Crathern said there had been ‘a lot of under-performance nationally and locally’ since the pandemic.

In 2018/19, 94% of the UDA target was met. This dropped to 65% in 2021/22. And, while there has been a ‘significant improvement’ since then, the figure stood at around 84% in 2023/24.

Four authorities – Horsham, Crawley, Worthing and Adur – performed higher than that, while Arun, Chichester and Mid Sussex fell short.

Ms Crathern said: “We’ve tried to work with our contractors to find reasons for under-performance and then to look at how we can work with them to improve that performance.”

That work has started to bear fruit. Between April and September 2024, all but one of the authorities met the mid-year target of 30%.

Only Arun failed to do so, with 26% compared to Crawley’s 47% and Horsham’s 41%.

Since the pandemic, the NHS has seen an increase in the number of contracts handed back by dentists across Sussex.

Seven were handed back in 2023/24, four in West Sussex (Arun, Horsham, Mid Sussex, and Worthing). In 2024/25 another two were handed back (Chichester and Horsham).

A report to the meeting said: “Chichester now has the lowest level of UDAs per head of population across Sussex. NHS Sussex tendered for a new contract in Chichester, however no bids were received.”

The city is now listed as a priority area for NHS Sussex’s Urgent Dental Care & Stabilisation programme.

The programme, which was piloted last year, is being expanded across West Sussex.

Its aim is to provide access to urgent dental care for anyone unable to access an appointment for urgent issues and is intended for patients without a regular dentist and those who are struggling to get an urgent appointment.

Other schemes include a £20,000 ‘golden hello’ – an incentive payment offered to NHS dentists to encourage them to work in areas where it’s difficult to recruit or retain them.

Arun, Worthing, and Crawley are target areas for the incentive, with nine being agreed so far.