Healthwatch Cheshire publish report on people’s experiences of dentists during the COVID-19 pandemic
Healthwatch Cheshire have today published a report of people’s experiences of accessing dentistry services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since June 2020, Healthwatch Cheshire has received increasing numbers of calls asking for details of local dental practices taking on new NHS patients. This is being experienced across Cheshire; however, we have received many enquiries from the Northwich and Winsford areas in particular. The main issues raised by people in regards to dentistry are summarised in this report.
Healthwatch Cheshire are continuing to monitor queries regarding dentistry and encourage anybody with issues accessing a dentist to share their experience with us on our online Feedback Centre.
We share all comments and feedback with the individual dental providers, and also NHS England who commission dentistry services. We have started to hold regular meetings with the NHS England dentistry team in the North West, to raise the concerns shared with us by the public, including in this report. NHS England are fully aware of the concerns, and have explained the circumstances as to why some of them occur, helping us to better understand the system. They are currently working towards resolving these issues and we will continue to work together using regular meetings to raise concerns and provide feedback.
For more information on how to find an NHS dentist, please click here.