Citizens Advice urges emergency treatment for NHS dental services
10th Febuary 2005
More emergency treatment is required on Britain's ailing NHS dental services, national charity Citizens Advice warned Health Secretary John Reid today.
This follows his recent announcement that fundamental reforms to ensure everyone has access to an NHS dentist have been delayed a second time and will not now come in until April 2006. [1]
The umbrella organisation representing the national network of Citizens Advice Bureaux said that despite Government efforts to fill the gaps, there is still a 'totally unacceptable postcode lottery' which excludes many of those most in need from access to NHS treatment.
It is calling on the Health Secretary to put in place additional interim measures to relieve some of the worst hardship currently being experienced by patients as a result of delays to planned reforms.
These should include help with travel costs to long-distance dentists for people on low incomes and more money for Primary Care Trusts to spot purchase sessions for NHS treatment from private dentists in the local community.
People on low incomes living in rural areas and reliant on public transport are worst affected and may find the nearest NHS dentist impossible to reach. The result can be people waiting weeks in acute pain for emergency treatment at local dental hospitals, employment opportunities being lost, and delays in other urgent medical treatment.
In one case a man in Lancashire would have needed to get three separate buses in a journey that would have taken around four hours each way. A 17 year old in Devon was unable to come off benefits and take up the chance of a Navy career because there was no local NHS dentist to do dental work he was told must be done before he could join. In Manchester, a man in severe pain with a broken tooth had to wait four weeks for an emergency appointment at a local dental hospital.
Some CAB clients on means-tested benefits have been tempted to take out high-cost loans to pay for private dental treatment because they could not get to see an NHS dentist.
Citizens Advice has joined forces with Which? (formerly the Consumers Association) to request an urgent meeting with John Reid.
Citizens Advice Chief Executive David Harker said:
"We welcome the fundamental reforms already planned to ensure everyone has access to an NHS dentist, but we are very concerned that it has been necessary once again to delay implementing these reforms in full.
"We also recognise the efforts the Government has already made to recruit additional dentists from overseas and the additional funding it has made available to help expand local NHS dentistry services. But these provide no guarantee that the service will improve in the short term for individual patients. Current arrangements remain totally unsatisfactory in many parts of the country, making access to NHS dentists a totally unacceptable postcode lottery.
"Citizens Advice Bureaux see many people, especially in rural areas, who have to make very long journeys to reach an NHS dentist. For people with their own transport this may be a costly inconvenience, but for those reliant on public transport the nearest NHS dentist may be impossible to reach. This means that people on low incomes, older people and those who are less able to travel are effectively excluded from NHS dental treatment.
"This must be of concern as it undermines the government's agenda to reduce health inequalities.
Our proposals should be seen as safety net measures that will only be needed until the longer term reforms come into effect. In the meantime, no-one should be denied access to essential NHS dental treatment because they can't afford the travel costs or because they face an impossible journey."
[1] Health Secretary John Reid announced in a ministerial statement on 10 January 2005 the full implementation of the reforms to NHS dentistry would be delayed until April 2006.
Last updated: February 23, 2007