No new NHS dentist for Rutland until 2025

A dentist pulled out of its contract in Rutland after the pandemic

Dental patients in Rutland will have to wait until 2025 for more NHS appointments to become available, a patient watchdog has warned.

A dental surgery in Oakham, which accepted NHS patients, handed back its contract in 2022, leaving six surgeries in Rutland which provide publicly-funded treatment.

Healthwatch Rutland, which represents patients, has said there has been a shortage of appointments for NHS dental treatment in the county, which has worsened due to delays in finding a new provider for the area.

The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) said it had been "working hard" to find a new dentist.

However, it cannot start looking for a new NHS dentist for Rutland until a key report, called an oral health assessment, is published.

The report, which dictates the amount of dentistry provided by the NHS in an area, was due to be completed for Rutland last autumn.

But a meeting of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland joint health scrutiny committee heard the assessment had been delayed due to a shortage of public health consultants and is now not set to be published until August.

A process to find a new NHS dentist for the area will then begin, which is expected to take at least three months.

And it is expected it would be 2025 before the new dentist begins treating patients.

Dr Janet Underwood, chair of Healthwatch Rutland

Dr Janet Underwood, chair of Healthwatch Rutland said the new NHS service could not arrive "soon enough for Rutland people, who are in pain and desperate to see a dentist".

She added some patients who were on benefits and entitled to free NHS care could not afford private dentistry.

"They're in a lot of pain - absolutely desperate," she said.

"They're ringing here, there and everywhere trying to get an appointment but they can't get one."

Rutland has a population of about 41,000 and about 20% of people in the county had dentistry funded by the NHS in the second half of last year, which is about 5% lower than in Leicester and the districts of Leicestershire.

LLR ICB, which is responsible for organising dental services locally, said patients could still approach an NHS dentist if they needed urgent general dental care, even if they were not registered with them and could also contact NHS 111 for support.

But in a survey by Healthwatch Rutland earlier this year, one patient said: "I have tried several times, through 111, to get an emergency appointment for two very urgent and very painful dental issues for well over a year now."

A NHS spokesperson said: "It is well-known that there are issues across the country accessing NHS dentistry and we are working hard to resolve this locally."

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