A check up on dental provision

Reporter: Dave Parton
Date online: 06 July 2010

A Department of Health survey completed by 924 people across Tameside has revealed that just 3 people who tried to get an appointment with an NHS dentist between January and March, 2010 failed to get seen.

The survey showed that across the borough 151 people attempted to see a dentist between January, 2010 and March this year.

Of those, 145 (96 per cent) were successful and 3 (2 per cent) could not be seen. A further 3 (2 per cent) people couldn’t remember.

Across England, the survey of 147,000 respondents showed 91 per cent of patients could get an appointment with 7 per cent not being able to and 2 per cent not remembering.

The survey carried out by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the DoH also revealed that 284 Tameside residents last called their dentist to book a routine check up. In addition, 84 patients called for an urgent appointment.

Of the 2,486 forms distributed 924 (37 per cent) were received back.

The Government said the results demonstrated the scale of the challenge it faced to improve patient access.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “The proportion of people seeing an NHS dentist remains below levels before the new dental contract was introduced in March, 2006, despite three quarters of a billion pounds extra funding over five years.

“This new data shows that too many people who tried to see an NHS dentist were unable to do so, and many more have simply given up trying.