Summary
The scheme has already provided 200,000 dental appointments between June 2023 and June 2024.
The GM Dental Quality Access Scheme has been extended until March 2025, meaning thousands more patients will get a dental appointment and urgent treatment when they need it.
The scheme was developed as a result of the challenges faced by patients who wanted access to an NHS dental appointment, and it initially ran from June 2023 – June 2024.
During that time, it provided an extra 200,000 NHS dental appointments in Greater Manchester.
Over 12 months, there were 119,000 new patients and 101,000 urgent patients seen. Disappointingly, another 22,400 people who made a dental appointment failed to attend, preventing others from benefiting from these appointments.
Thanks to funding from NHS GM, the scheme will continue to run until March 2025.
The Dental Quality Access Scheme is part of the Greater Manchester Primary Care Blueprint, which is the five-year plan for all of primary care across our city-region and includes details of how we can keep it sustainable for the future. It also features in the PCB Annual Review 2023-2024.
There are currently 176 Greater Manchester practices signed up to deliver the scheme – approximately 50 per cent of all dental contracts across GM. The remaining practices are able to benefit from the national New Patient Premium offer. This is part of the national dental recovery plan, helping to ensure there is an increase in dental access in GM.
Don McGrath, Chair of Greater Manchester Dental Provider Board and Chair of Manchester Local Dental Committee, said: “Access to NHS dental services has been a significant challenge across the country, as has the sustainability of the practices providing this service.
“Within Greater Manchester, dental providers and the commissioning team have worked in collaboration to support practices and help them commit to seeing NHS patients new to their practice and, at the same time, increase access to dental care.
“Demand for access continues to be very high and practices can realistically only see limited numbers of patients each day. But by working together across the system we are supporting patients to be able to get the care they need.”
Patients looking for a nearby dentist can visit the NHS website and enter their postcode. It will show which practices are accepting new patients – there may be a wait depending on practice availability. If someone needs emergency dental treatment, they can contact GM Urgent Dental Care seven days a week, between 8am and 10pm.
