Making dental care accessible

Blog - 4 August 2022

Thanks to people sharing their experiences around the challenges to access a local dentist with us over the last year, we’ve helped the Government and the local Dental Network stay informed of the barriers that people across Stoke-on-Trent are facing when seeking dental care.

NHS England has recognised the need to update the ‘NHS find a dentist’ more frequently, to indicate whether the practice is accepting new patients. Where people could not access a local dentist, we signposted in excess of 50 people to the local Dental Advice Line for alternative support.

Over 200 of people Contact us to share their difficulties in finding a dentist for routine treatment and care.

Regular updates on the ‘NHS find a dentist website helps people to:

• Understand if a local dentist is accepting adults and children

• Consider when the last update to the web page was made which spotlights the latest information about respective NHS dental practices

• Distinguish if NHS dental practices are accepting adults entitled to free dental care

What difference did this make

Better clarity and understanding for people to find a dentist in Stoke-onTrent without residents having to call a large number of dentists to ask repetitive questions about registration availability.

“A simple but effective update to the NHS find a dentist website makes it a lot clearer for me to support local people to go online and look if a dentist is taking on new patients.”

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