Greater Manchester Dentistry Report

Report - 18 August 2021

During the COVID pandemic people across Greater Manchester have told their local Healthwatch that they were experiencing difficulties accessing NHS dental services.

Across Greater Manchester local Healthwatch organisations recorded 102 enquiries regarding NHS dentistry in 2019/20. That figure increased to 650 in the period April 2020 to March 2021. A six fold increase.

Feedback from the public was analysed by theme. Whilst some enquiries raised concern regarding more than one theme, only 2.3% of overall enquiries in 2020/21 related to treatment, cost or health screening alone. 97.7% of enquiries raised issues of accessibility.

All services have been impacted by the Covid 19 Pandemic and therefore it is reasonable to make an assumption that both the increase in enquiries and the concerns regarding accessibility have some correlation with the way services have responded. The greatest proportion of enquiries were recorded in Spring 2021 - during the longest and most recent lockdown in England (38.3% of all enquiries).

We continue to get feedback from local people about how difficult they find it to get NHS dental care. We fully support the national recommendations made by Healthwatch England: Dentistry during COVID-19 insight briefing

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Greater Manchester Healthwatch Dentistry Report
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