Nearly 10,000 urgent appointments have been booked through a pilot scheme allowing the NHS 111 service to directly arrange appointments with practices.
In mid and south Essex, NHS 111 can now add appointments directly into dental practice booking systems. The integrated care board (ICB) for the area said this is ‘significantly improving access to care’ as it avoids patients having to call multiple practices in search of an appointment.
In February, the government said it would be rolling out 700,000 extra urgent dental appointments, with targets for appointments delivered in each area. Since the pilot launched in May 2024, the approximately 10,000 appointments delivered has exceeded the government’s target of 6,000 for mid and south Essex.
‘Fast and easy access to dental care means less pain for patients’
William Guy is director of primary care at NHS Mid and South Essex. He said: ‘Fast and easy access to dental care means less pain for patients. Enabling NHS 111 to book the appointment for the patient removes a barrier to accessing care and has been key to the development of our dental access pilot.
‘The system also allows us to view the full, anonymised patient pathway, so that we monitor performance and understand the requirements of our local population, including when and where appointments are most needed. Booking and tracking appointments in this way is a first in England and informs service development so we can deliver effective dental provision.’
When the NHS 111 service books an appointment, the dental provider is notified of the booking and receives supporting referral details. Participating practices can also book patients into the urgent slots if contacted directly.
The ICB implemented the pilot as part of its dental access initiative. Since it was launched in September 2023, the initiative has delivered almost 25,000 urgent appointments in total.
Are there any drawbacks of direct booking by NHS 111?
Mohsan Ahmad, principal dentist and chair of the Greater Manchester Local Dental Network, said there were a number of potential challenges that could arise if the scheme were to be implemented more widely. He made the following suggestions to reduce this risk:
- Once booked in, the dental team would need to contact the patients and confirm the appointment details and what the patient should bring. For example, exemption details, medication details etc. This ensures a smoother process at the appointment
- Try not to book appointments too far in advance, as patients tended to miss appointments if they were booked more than 48 hours in advance
- Keep excellent records of missed appointments
- Maintain good communications between the booking team and the dental providers.
Follow Dentistry.co.uk on Instagram to keep up with all the latest dental news and trends.
