The British Dental Association (BDA) has stressed that ministers must act on new research from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which reveals a collapse in access to NHS dentistry among care home residents.
Feedback from providers indicates that since 2019 and the onset of lockdown, the proportion of residents never accessing NHS dental care routinely has grown from six per cent to 25 per cent. Homes stating residents were always or mostly always able to access routine care fell from 67 per cent to 35 per cent.
Dentist leaders stress that the access gap here will far exceed the wider population, given the high needs and complex medical histories of residents, which includes the elderly and vulnerable adults. The BDA has long expressed concern over the postcode lottery of provision, with some patients reported as being unable to communicate their pain, eat or sleep. It has stressed that any solution requires national leadership on commissioning and funding services that must cover mainstream, urgent and domiciliary care.
In response to the health watchdog’s first 2019 report, the BDA urged a revolution in the approach to oral health in care homes. It has applauded the leadership shown by the CQC, which has shown a paradigm shift in awareness among leadership teams and in care planning and staff training. The professional body has stressed that the responsibility for providing anything resembling normal levels of access rests with government. The report continues to underline the difficulties of delivering care under the NHS contract, with only five per cent of contracts held in England, including domiciliary care, in 2021/22.
Following the 2019 Public Accounts Committee hearing into NHS patient fines, the BDA has applauded the CQC’s call to make care home residents automatically exempt from patient charges.
Giten Dabhi, chair of the British Dental Association’s England Community Dental Services Committee, said, “The pandemic caused huge disruption to dental services, and sadly the worst impact is being felt by the most vulnerable in our society. For years we’ve needed a revolution in oral health in our care homes. Now, real progress risks being undone as access to care falls off a cliff.
“The government must step up. Ministers have a moral duty to residents that can be left unable to eat, drink and communicate.”