Dental Services: Coronavirus
(asked on 30th June 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of patients that accessed emergency dental service during the covid-19 lockdown.
Data is not currently available on the number of patients that accessed emergency dental services during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data is collected in the format requested on the number of patients requiring dental treatment. Data is collected on the number of patients see by a National Health Service dentist in, for adults, a 24-month period and, for children, a 12 month period. This data is published every six months. The latest data for the period ending 31 December 2019 is available at the following link:
NHS England and NHS Improvement are responsible for commissioning primary care dentistry to meet local need and as such are responsible for assessments of need. NHS England and NHS Improvement announced on 28 May that NHS dentistry outside urgent care centres would begin to restart from 8 June with the aim of increasing levels of service as fast as is compatible with maximising safety. The letter provided guidance on prioritisation of services to meet need. The letter can be found at the following link: