Children waiting too long for GAs, says Labour
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- Published: Thursday, 21 June 2018 07:34
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The number of children waiting more than six months for NHS dental extractions in hospitals has risen by 52% in three years, new figures obtained by shadow health minister, Jon Ashworth MP, show. Labour said there had been a “completely unacceptable” deterioration in child dental care as it revealed the findings.
The statistics from Freedom of Information requests show that children are waiting an average of two weeks more for operations, compared with 2013. Overall, the findings show a 15% increase over three years in the number of children on waiting lists for dental operations undertaken under general anaesthesia. Last year children in England waited on average 85 days for treatment under general anaesthesia following a referral. In the worst-performing trust, Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS foundation trust, children waited 253 days on average for treatment.
Jon Ashworth 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. Labour’s ambition is to help our children become the healthiest in the world. That means investment to improve the oral health of every child and taking radical action like banning the advertising of junk food on family TV.”
According to the latest data, 170 operations a day are undertaken to remove rotten teeth in children. This is the equivalent of nearly 43,000 hospital operations to remove teeth in teenagers and children in 2016/17, at a cost to the NHS of £36.2 million. This is a 17 per cent increase on the 36,833 operations in 2012/13.
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. 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.
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