Agenda item - Dental Services: Update from NHS England

Report of the Executive Director, Governance, People & Finance: Dental Services Update (copy attached)

32.1    This item was introduced by Mark Ridgeway, NHS England (NHSE) Dental Commissioner. Mr Ridgeway provided a summary of the current state of city NGS dental services and answered members’ questions.

32.2    Cllr Grimshaw told the committee that people in her ward were reporting many problems with dental services, including being summarily removed from dentist’s ‘lists’; and being unable to access dentistry, leading to people having to attend A&E instead, or trying to fix their own teeth. Mr Ridgeway told the committee that there have been no formal dental lists since 2006: practices may choose to operate their own lists, but there is no formal registration as there is with GPs, and consequently no NHSE influence on how practices manage their lists. Dental practices which choose to undertake NHS dentistry are contracted to undertake a set amount of NHS activity each year, but it is up to each practice how they manage this. Mr Ridgeway also noted that practices had been forced to focus on urgent care during the pandemic and, although the situation is less pressured than it was, the system has not yet fully recovered.

32.3    Cllr West noted that the scale of the dental backlog was bound to have an impact in terms of the deterioration of people’s oral health. What is the potential health and cost impact of this? Mr Ridgeway responded that this analysis was being undertaken, but data was not yet available. The Chair agreed that this was a key issue and one that the HOSC would need to revisit once data becomes available.

32.4    In response to questions from Cllr Pissaridou on children’s dentistry, Mr Ridgeway told members that data on children’s dental health would be available shortly. Alistair Hill, Brighton & Hove Director of Public Health, added that young people’s dental health is an important issue, with one in four children starting school suffering dental decay (pre-Covid data). Mr Hill agreed to check whether there was more up to date population health data available.

32.5    In answer to a  question from Cllr Brennan on who dental practices are accountable to, Mr Ridgeway told members that accountability is to the General Dental Council ,and to NHSE as commissioners.

32.6    Geoffrey Bowden noted that since December 2020, the highest number of enquiries to Healthwatch have concerned dental services. Mr Bowden told members that Healthwatch has a number of serious concerns about dental services, including provision for refugees and migrants, inequalities in terms of access, and the impact on general health of poor dental access.

32.7    Cllr Deane told the committee that she was not reassured that local dental need will ever be met and asked what NHSE’s strategy is to ensure that there is good quality NHS dentistry. Mr Ridgeway responded that NHSE is looking to reform the dental contract, has invested in the additional hours scheme, and is looking to place more emphasis on prevention. However, contact reform is not imminent and there is a finite resource of dentists willing to offer NHS treatment, with major recruitment issues for the profession.

32.8    In response to a question from Cllr Pissaridou as to whether NHS dentistry is in crisis, Mr Ridgeway responded that NHSE is doing all it can to mitigate problems, but the situation is currently very difficult and it will take many months to return to pre-pandemic levels of service.

32.9    In response to a question from the Chair about the new dental service in Moulescoomb, Mr Ridgeway told the committee that the service has been procured to address capacity issues in the city. The recruitment environment is currently very challenging and it was Mr Ridgeway’s understanding that this services was not yet running at full capacity.

32.10  The Chair thanked Mr Ridgeway for attending and for answering questions. She noted that this was clearly an issue that the HOSC would have to revisit in coming months.