Dental crisis: People in Dewsbury, Batley and Spen left in agony for more than a year waiting for tooth extractions

Reports to a meeting of Kirklees Council’s Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel painted a bleak picture of dental care, not only in Kirklees but the wider West Yorkshire region.

One of the reports by Healthwatch West Yorkshire highlighted a number of problems including six-year-long waits before accessing a dentist, excessive use of antibiotics, profound mental health impacts, and self-extraction.

A representative of Healthwatch Kirklees, Karen Huntley, attended the meeting and reiterated much of the information in the report about Kirklees residents struggling to access dental services regardless of whether they are routine or urgent.

She said it has proved “very difficult stroke impossible” to help people access care and highlighted the impact this is having on mental health.

Other concerning insights were shared by Hayden Ridsdale – strategy and partnerships programme manager at the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (WYICB) – who acknowledged the issues highlighted by Ms Huntley and gave a presentation on the district’s dental services.

The WYICB became responsible for commissioning dental services for the area last April.

Mr Ridsdale said that on average, there are around 1,000 dental appointments too few in Kirklees and this varies depending on the part of the borough.

In Huddersfield, there are 1.09 patients for every one available appointment, whereas in Dewsbury there are almost two patients per available appointment, raising concern over health inequality.

He also explained that in the case of the paediatric services at Locala – a community dental service for Calderdale and Kirklees – 1,855 new patients are waiting for an assessment and 331 for tooth extraction.

The longest wait time for an extraction is 50 weeks and the longest wait from becoming a new patient to having a tooth extracted is 77 weeks.

Worrying statistics about the dental health of the borough’s children were shared in another council report.

A Government study from 2019 showed that 31.2 per cent of five-year-olds in Kirklees had visible tooth decay, with 2 per cent experiencing sepsis as a result.

However, figures showing the percentage of Kirklees children who had accessed a dentist in the past 12 months were higher than both the Yorkshire and the Humber, and national averages, standing at 63.6 per cent.

Placing further strain on the children’s dental services is the absence of admitted paediatric provision at Dewsbury Hospital. The meeting heard that patients have the option to travel 11 miles for surgery and treatment at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield.

However, Mark Smith, deputy director of operations for the division of surgery at the Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust, told the meeting that alternatives were being explored for the use of the Dewsbury site including allocating certain days for treating children.

He said that this would allow the service to “catch up quite quickly” with the backlog.

He also highlighted the £6.5m investment that is being spent in the current financial year to tackle the problems faced. Nearly £5m has gone into improving urgent dental care, with money also being spent on tackling dental health inequality by reaching out to children in deprived areas and other vulnerable groups.