GP survey gives thumbs up for dentistry
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- Published: Wednesday, 09 July 2014 07:22
- Written by News Editor
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Results for the latest GP survey (Jan-Mar 2104), which includes dental questions, show positive findings for both NHS and private dentistry. 58% of respondents had visited an NHS dentist in the last two years. 84% of these rated their NHS dental experience as ‘positive’. Of those that tried to get an appointment in the last two years, 93% were successful. 21% did not try to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years because they preferred private dentistry.
Overall, just under three fifths (58%) of respondents in the most recent year (2014/15) had visited an NHS dentist in the last two years. 11% of the respondents didn’t try to see an NHS dentist because they “didn’t need to go” or “do not like going” and 8% didn’t try because they prefer private dentistry.
The proportion of respondents who “Prefer private dentistry” has been on the increase. 21% of respondents did not try to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years because they preferred private dentistry, an increase of 0.8 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Those respondents who stayed with their dentist when they moved from NHS to private made up 17% of all the responses submitted.
Respondents who “Didn’t think could get an NHS dental appointment” have decreased to 4.9% of the respondents in 2014/15 from 5.2% reported in the two previous years.
There are regional variations in demand for NHS dentistry services with demand being highest in the North of England at 65%. In contrast, demand levels to NHS dental services remain lowest in London at 54% followed by South of England at 57%.
Of those that tried to get an appointment in the last two years, 93% were successful. The success rate (when excluding those who stated that they ‘can’t remember’ whether they were successful) was 95%, which is similar to rates recorded in the January to March 2013 survey responses and an increase of 0.3 percentage points when compared to the January to March 2012 survey. Lower levels of success (in onbtaining NHS care) were also reported by younger adults and ethnic minorities.
Of the respondents that tried to get NHS dental care in the last 2 years, 84% of respondents rated their NHS dental experience as positive, an increase of 0.2 percentage points compared to January to March 2013. 48% had a very good experience, 0.5% point higher than the responses from the same period last year. Of the remaining responses 36% had a fairly good experience, 9% of respondents said it was neither good nor poor, and fairly poor and very poor had a 4% and 3% share of the total respectively.
For the January to March 2014 GP patient survey 1.3 million adult GP patients were contacted and 460,000 replies were received. This represents a 35% response rate; a decrease of 0.9% percentage points compared to January to March 2013 results.
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