Funding for additional out of hours dental appointments to tackle Covid backlog

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Funding will secure up to 350,000 additional dental appointments allowing people suffering from oral pain, disease, and infection to get the care they need, as services drive back to pre-pandemic levels

Dental patients in England are to be offered weekend and evening appointments under NHS plans to tackle the backlog exacerbated by the pandemic.

Up to 350,000 additional dental appointments are to be made available in February and March, NHS England said, thanks to £50m funding.

The appointments will enable people suffering from oral pain, disease, and infection to see a dentist with priority being given to children, people with learning disabilities, autism, or severe mental health problems.

In the North West, £7.3 million is being invested so NHS teams will use the funds to secure increased care capacity amongst local dentists already operating to help patients suffering from oral ill-health.

Dentists involved in the scheme will be paid more than a third on top of their normal sessional fee for delivering this care outside of core hours, such as early morning and weekend work.

Welcoming the news, Chris Clarkson, the Conservative MP for Heywood and Middleton, said: “I’m extremely pleased to see that the government is taking positive steps to boost dental care in Heywood and Middleton – through the pandemic people haven’t been able to access the full range of services and I know from personal experience how distressing that can be. This welcome boost in funds will enable more people to get the care they need, sooner.”

Chief Dental Officer for England Sara Hurley said: “Dental services are a vital part of the NHS providing oral health care to all age groups, and that’s why we have taken this unprecedented action to boost NHS dental services.

“More than 600 urgent dental health hubs were rapidly ramped up during the pandemic to deliver urgent care for patients, and the NHS is now getting key services like dentistry back to pre-pandemic levels – injecting an extra £50 million into routine services will help provide check-ups and treatment for hundreds of thousands of people.”

During the pandemic, the NHS has protected dentists’ income when strict infection prevention control guidance meant dentists needed to operate at severely reduced capacity.

Infection prevention control measures were significantly eased in November 2021 and since the start of this year, the NHS has required dental practices to operate at 85% of their pre-pandemic contracted activity, the latest stage in the return to pre-pandemic workloads for NHS dentists.

NHS dentists continue to receive free personal protective equipment from the Department of Health and Social Care, and the government recently awarded NHS dental contractors an increase in pay along with other NHS staff and workers.