Labour says 52% rise in England over three years is ‘damning indictment of Tory neglect’

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The number of children in England waiting longer than six months for a dental operation under general anaesthesia has risen by 52% over the past three years, data provided by NHS trusts suggests.

The figures also show a 15% increase in the number of children on waiting lists for such treatment between 2015 and 2017.

In the worst-performing trust, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS foundation trust, children waited 253 days on average for treatment.

The Labour party, which obtained the figures through freedom of information requests, said a deterioration in child dental care was driving some people to desperate measures.

Jon Ashworth, the shadow health minister, said: “It is completely unacceptable that vulnerable children are increasingly waiting for months in agony to have their teeth fixed.



“We’ve also heard horrific stories of people forced to resort to DIY dentistry kits in utter desperation. In the fifth-richest nation in the world, this is a damning indictment of Tory neglect of our health service.”

The responses from 33 NHS trusts show there were 13,548 under-18s on waiting lists for dental operations under general anaesthesia in 2017, compared with 11,806 in 2015. The number of children waiting more than six months rose by 514 to 1,498.

On average, children waited 85 days for treatment last year – 15 days more than in 2013.

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Labour wants the government to boost investment in oral health and take “radical action” to help reduce health inequalities, such as banning the advertising of junk food on family TV programmes.

The numbers of children on dental waiting lists last year ranged from 3,534 in Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS foundation trust, to 33 in James Paget University Hospitals NHS foundation trust in East Anglia.

A spokesman for Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS foundation trust said it had seen increasing demand because it was the only major centre for specialist paediatric dental services in the region.

He added: “We have increased our paediatric outpatient clinics and operating capacity, as well as additional substantive medical posts, which has resulted in a reduction in our waiting lists since March 2018.”

Figures published earlier this year show the number of operations to pull out rotten teeth in children rose by 17% to 42,911 between 2012-13 and 2016-17. As a result, the cost to the NHS increased from £27.3m to £36.2m.

The chair of the British Dental Association, Mick Armstrong, described the growing waiting lists as “symptomatic of government failure to tackle a wholly preventable disease”.

He added: “The vast oral health inequalities we are seeing between rich and poor are not inevitable. The battle for good oral health is won or lost in early years, and ministers should not be waving a white flag when cost-effective policies are available that can make a lasting difference.”

Professor Michael Escudier, dean of the faculty of dental surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons, said that as well as restricting junk food adverts, the availability of such products in price promotions and at the point of sale should be limited. He also called for the introduction of supervised teeth-brushing programmes in nurseries and breakfast clubs.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said a record number of children (6.9 million) visited a dentist last year, almost 60% of the population. “We’re determined to make sure all children get the right access and support to achieve good oral hygiene, whatever their background or location,” she added.