We are receiving many enquiries from people in Hampshire who are struggling to find a dentist that will accept NHS patients.
Our current advice is to continue to contact dental surgeries using the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-dentist.
Dental practices are now required to regularly update the directory to indicate whether they are taking on new NHS patients so this information should be up to date.
The Additional Hours Dental Scheme offers NHS dental appointments for urgent treatment and/or subsequent stabilisation. Solent NHS run the Special Care Dental Service for those who are unable to access dental care in the General Dental Service because of special needs. They have a helpline which is 0300 300 2014.
If you are in the Hampshire area and need urgent treatment call 111.
Dental Additional Hours Scheme
This scheme is for people who need urgent treatment and/or stabilisation from an NHS dentist. The scheme only offers ‘routine check ups’ for care home residents, Looked after Children and clinically vulnerable patients who require dental assessment/treatment to enable them to receive medical or surgical care. Please look at the eligibility criteria for more details. The eligibility criterion for accessing the sessions can be found here.
It is an NHS service offered by a few dental practices across the county, so you may need to travel. To find out which dentists are offering the service as well as timings of the sessions, read our post on the scheme.
How do I access these sessions?
Check you are eligible for the service and contact the dental surgeries listed. It is important to tell the receptionist from the outset that you are seeking care under the Additional Hours Scheme, this will reduce confusion on which service you are trying to access.
NOTE: Healthwatch receives regular updates from NHS England informing us of changes/cancelations to these sessions and we endeavour to ensure that these updates are added to our site as quickly as possible.
Feedback
We would like to know about your experience of using Additional Hours service, good or bad. You can feed back to us here.
If you need to make a complaint, you can read our guidance on how to do so and your options here.