Patients struggle to get dentist appointments despite ‘agonising pain’
Patients are struggling to get a dental appointment in what has been described as a “crisis waiting to happen”.
Whiston resident Gemma said she last saw her dentist in 2019 for a regular check up, but was told in 2020, when the covid pandemic hit, that they were only accepting emergency appointments. Earlier this year, when she began experiencing “excruciating wisdom pain”, she called her practice only to be told she was no longer on the ‘register’ due to not having been for a while.
She told the ECHO : “I asked for an appointment and they told me I was no longer a patient there because I’d not been since 2019. I’d been given no prior warning about this. I had no letter or phone call about it or anything.
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“I said I hadn’t been because there was a pandemic and I was unable to go because I didn’t need emergency treatment. I was told there was no space on the books anymore and if it was an emergency I’d have to call an emergency dentist. So I did but they said it wasn’t classed as an emergency and to take painkillers so I left it.
“I was in agony but what else could I do? I still don’t know what was wrong. Patients are being left to suffer.”
Gemma added she began to experience similar pain again this month, but is still unable to see a dentist and has to “live with the pain”. Despite trying to register elsewhere in the area, she said she has not had any luck as “everywhere is full”, but her son remains at his original dentist.
She said: “It’s off-putting. I try to call around and still am told there’s no space but when it comes to needing a dentist, I have nowhere to turn. I understand the pandemic has created an unimaginable amount of pressures but surely something somewhere has got to give? You can’t be left in pain unless it’s an emergency, but what counts as an emergency? It’s a crisis waiting to happen.”
Gemma is not the only one who finds it a struggle to become a patient at a new practice, with many people across Merseyside taking to social media to ask the same question.
A spokesperson for the British Dental Association said the number of patients who cannot get a dentist appointment is “increasing” but nothing is being done to address it. He added that up until 2006, patients registered at a practice would be guaranteed treatment there but then a new contract came into force that meant patients were “no longer guaranteed a place”.
He told the ECHO: “In 2008 the Health Select Committee said the current contract was not fit for purpose, that’s where we are.” The spokesperson went on to say there is “no official register” at a practice and instead is based on a patient’s needs.
This means in theory, new patients and those who have not been for a while are the most expensive patients. More information on the 2008 report can be found here.
The spokesperson, who has been in the dental industry for over 20 years, said: “The reality is the number of people who can’t get a dentist is increasing and the government is doing nothing to address it. There are no plans published to look at the different ways of the current contract. Practices are exhausted.
“If you ring up the dental helpline for Cheshire and Merseyside (01614 769651) that will deal with the emergency problems, you will be told which practitioner is available. That’s a short-term fix. But write to your MP, this needs widely addressing. Ringing around, although unsatisfactory, it does help.
“We are desperate to help when we can but we are so overburdened at the moment. If you are told no one day, the answer may be different the next. Another practice may be able to help. It’s an entirely unsatisfactory system but that’s what we’re stuck with for now.”