No new NHS dentist spaces will be available in South Holland until January 2019 at the earliest.
Currently no practices in South Holland are taking on new patients and the emergency dental service at Johnson Community Hospital which ended in August last year. Interim cover for the urgent care element of the service is currently being provided by other dental practices in the area.
NHS England said a procurement process is currently underway and will result in a new dental practice “providing routine and urgent care from 8am to 8pm, 365 days a year” in Spalding.
An NHS England spokesman said the contract is for “25,000 Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) per year.”
They added: “A UDA does not mean an individual patient, but it’s a way of measuring the number of treatments provided by a dental practice. A routine dental check-up represents one UDA, but more complex treatments will represent more.
“Based on the most up-to-date figures we have for the Lincolnshire area, we would expect 25,000 UDAs to equate to between 8,000 and 9,000 patients being treated, though obviously this would vary depending on the treatments given in any given year.”
Di Pegg, Head of Primary Care for NHS England in Lincolnshire said: “Earlier this year we started the process of commissioning contracts for seven new dental services across Lincolnshire to ensure more people can access NHS dental treatment closer to where they live. The procurement process remains on course to conclude in the summer and the new services are expected to start in January 2019.”
An NHS spokesman said there was also hope for care at the Johnson Community Hospital to return.
“The extended hours service previously provided at Johnson Community Hospital is also being recommissioned.
“Interim cover for the urgent care element of this service is already being provided by other dental practices in the local area, and will remain in place until the new contracts start.”
The NHS website lists 94 dental practices in the area, none of which are accepting new adult or child places.
A handful of practices are “Accepting NHS patients by referral only”.
The NHS spokesman said this “refers to practices which provide specialist services such as orthodontics and minor oral surgery.
“These specialist services can only be provided by referral from a dental practitioner.”
A concerned grandmother from Moulton Chapel contacted The Voice to complain about the lack of care available for her nine-year-old granddaughter after she damaged her tooth and needed emergency work.
She contacted NHS direct but could not access any nearby dentists so was “forced to go private”.
“What else can you do when you’ve got a child in pain?” she asked.
The grandmother, who asked not to be named, said she is “annoyed” at the lack of services.
The family was previously registered with 1A Dental Service at Johnson Community Hospital, which ceased practice in August 2017.
“We haven’t been to the dentist since Johnson closed.”
She said the inability to take children for dental check-ups is “absolutely disgusting in this day and age” and the family is going to have to go private.
