Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Accepted
Paragraph: 14
Require Government to outline timeline and strategy for universal NHS dental access
Recommendation
We welcome the Government’s ambition for everyone who needs an NHS dentist to be able to access one. This ambition must ensure access within a reasonable timeframe and a reasonable distance. The Government must set out how they intend to realise this ambition and what the timeline will be for delivery. It is vital that this ambition is the central tenet of the Government’s forthcoming dental recovery plan. Once the plan has been published, we will revisit the recommendations in this report to assess it against this criteria.
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation and highlights existing measures, such as NHS England's Patient and Public Voice group to improve patient understanding and the contractual requirement for dental practices to quarterly update their NHS website profiles. It also notes additional measures by NHS England to monitor and improve compliance with website updates.
Paragraph Reference:
14
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
Accept The Department accepts this recommendation. We agree that patients need to be well informed about how NHS dentistry works and the care they are entitled to. NHS England has created a new group of Patient and Public Voice (PPV) partners and are working on a suite of public facing documents that will support public knowledge and understanding, including on dental recall intervals and how the whole dental team can be used to deliver patient care. The PPV Group will consider how we can raise awareness further on an ongoing basis. Our reforms in 2022 also implemented measures to ensure that NHS dental practices provide up to date information for patients. It is now a contractual requirement that all dental practices must review and update their NHS website profile information every quarter which includes what services they offer and whether they are accepting new NHS patients. We acknowledge that compliance to this requirement should be higher, and NHS England have recently put in place additional measures to monitor and improve this. Quarterly reports are now produced and made available to ICBs who have the contractual powers to ensure adherence to these requirements.