October 12, 2022 9.12 am This story is over 28 months old

Poor dental experiences spark Lincolnshire watchdog review

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Dentists are in great demand | Photo: Adobe Stock

A campaign has been launched by a Lincolnshire health watchdog with the aim of improving dental services in the county – following a rise in poor experiences.

Healthwatch Lincolnshire says that residents have shared complaints about dental services since as far back as 2015, and it has been raising concerns about the decline in access to NHS dentists.

The watchdog has been bringing concerns to NHS England Midlands Dental Commissioning Team, Media, Healthwatch England, as well as local and national dental networks.

It said: “We all recognise many of the problems with dental services in Lincolnshire, such as commissioning, workforce and our counties geography. What Healthwatch does see is little or no improvements being actioned. For example, in our county we have seen increasing numbers of dental practices making the decision to ‘hand-back’ NHS contracts and move to being fully private.”

An ‘NHS Dentist 4 all – Improving Dental Services across Lincolnshire’ campaign will run from October 1, 2022 until March 31, 2023.

People can pledge support, share their experiences and sign up here. They will also be able to read the experiences of patients, carers and service users.