According to a survey published earlier this year, it was revealed that 6.2 million patients who tried to get an NHS dentist appointment in the last two years were unable to do so. In May this year, it was reported that the NHS waiting list for dental care grew to above 7.6million.
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00:00Unfortunately, it appears unlikely there's not going to be any change for a number of
00:07years and despite the fact that from the previous government and this government we've had noises
00:15around creating new appointments, there's no flesh on the bones. We don't know where
00:20these new appointments are going to come from, who's going to deliver them, how they're going
00:25to be delivered, and in the current circumstances, where the funding is going to come from because
00:30traditionally NHS dentistry has been underfunded over the last long period of time, 10-20 years.
00:41Earlier this year, research found that certain areas of the UK are considered to be dental
00:46deserts, with too few dentists to treat the population. Some examples of dental deserts
00:52include Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall, Cumbria and much of Wales. Some issues related to
00:57dental deserts in the UK include lack of awareness, people turning to private care and the rise
01:03in self-treatment.
01:05The big waiting list increase arose as a result of Covid and that was down to the fact that
01:14it was the only sector of healthcare that was totally closed for three months at the
01:18beginning of Covid. And if you imagine how many courses of treatment are carried out
01:24during three months, that gave us a huge backlog. We reckoned about 12 million courses of treatment
01:29at that stage. We then look at the workforce issue and we have a huge shortage. We're then
01:39looking at the effects of Brexit. We urgently need a new contract, which is more attractive
01:46to dentists, delivers for patients and encourages the dentist to stay in the NHS system.