Dental Services: Surrey
Question
Dr Al Pinkerton
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) accuracy and (b) transparency of data reporting on NHS dental service availability in (i) Surrey and (ii) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answer
Stephen KinnockNational Health Service dentists are required to update their NHS website profiles at least every 90 days to ensure patients have up-to-date information on where they can access care. This includes information on whether they are accepting new patients. Integrated care boards review which practices in their area have not updated their profile in a 90-day period and work with practices to ensure websites are up to date.
Patients in England are not registered with an NHS dental practice, although many NHS dental practices do tend to see patients regularly. There is no geographical restriction on which practice a patient may attend. In circumstances where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment directly through an NHS dental practice, they should contact NHS 111.