Youngsters wait longer for dental care

Young people in Norfolk and Suffolk are being forced to wait up to four years for orthodontic appointments, despite more than £5m being pumped into the region's NHS dental services - reports the Eastern Daily Press.

However, the sum is equivalent to only 8 hours of cash the government pays to the audit-failing European Union every year - even taking into account grants and subisides Britain receives back. And only about a fifth of the money will be spent on tackling the severe shortage of orthodontists.

Meanwhile, the average wait for orthodontic care in the Yarmouth and Waveney Primary Care Trust (PCT) area now tops three and a half years, with patients in Suffolk and Norfolk waiting two and a half year before an appointment.

Last month, NHS Norfolk announced that it would invest £2.8m in the county's NHS dentistry services to tackle shortages in towns including Dereham and North Walsham, but only £720,000 will be spent on improving access to orthodontic treatment.

Although the extra funding should allow about 600 more cases to be dealt with each year by employing at least two more specialist orthodontists, it will take several years for the long waiting lists to be reduced.

Liberal Democrat shadow health secretary and North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said: “Norfolk has some completely unacceptable waiting times and, as a parent whose children have both benefitted from orthodontic treatment, I sympathise with the problem.

“Parents are finding now that getting treatment for their children is much more difficult than it was just three or four years ago, the service has deteriorated that quickly. It is a serious issue.”

In the Yarmouth and Waveney area, the average waiting time is three and a half years - meaning that many patients are left waiting significantly longer than that before treatment.

With some youngsters being referred to orthodontists when they are 10 or 11, they could be in their late teens before the work to correct their teeth is complete.

Bob Purser, contracts manager for Yarmouth and Waveney PCT, said: “We acknowledge that there is currently an extended assessment waiting time for primary care specialist orthodontics treatment. A key priority for the PCT for the coming 12 months is to significantly reduce this waiting time.”

Suffolk PCT announced a £1.3m investment in its NHS dental services earlier this year, but only about £900,000 has been ring-fenced for orthodontic care.

NHS Norfolk is due to increase spending on dentistry by 13pc next year, totalling a £2.8m investment.

A spokesman for Suffolk PCT said: “We are aware that some of the waiting lists for orthodontic treatment are longer than we would like. Working with our orthodontists, we are identifying ways of improving access and reducing waiting times. In 07/08 the PCT invested an additional £230,000 precisely for this purpose.”

But these are drops in the ocean compared to the scale of cash central government is wasting on the audit-failing EU, and will make little impact reducing the long waiting lists.

The government must stop wasting so much money on an organisation that hasn't been able to get its accounts approved for 13 years running, and focus on continuing funding shortfalls within NHS Primary Care Trusts that are causing these poor service levels.