Millions of patients on waiting lists, deteriorating infrastructure and workers on strike: The NHS crisis is one of the major challenges for the next government. The level of support for the NHS has never been lower. The lack of access to dental care is a symptom of a system on the verge of breaking down.
On February 5, the Ashley Road dental practice in Bristol opened its registration period for new patients. Those interested had to register in person at the center located in a northern neighborhood of the city in the southwest of England. Thousands of people came. There was an endless queue that stretched around the block. Men and women, students and elderly people, all waiting their turn for hours in the cold British winter.
The local police had to intervene to organize the wait and avoid tensions.Within two days, dentists registered more than 1,500 new patients. On the third day, they closed the vacancy, leaving hundreds of people at the doors of their offices.
UK Election 2024 RNE – The broken smiles of NHS patients and workers – Listen now
Queues, a symptom of the deficiencies of the health system
Because of their size, the Bristol queues made national headlines that Monday and remained prominent until the news of King Charles III’s cancer the following day eclipsed all other problems, whether medical or not.
The scene was, however, just one more symptom of the immense difficulties faced by millions of people in the UK when it comes to getting to a dentist. The Labour MP Ashley Dalton summed it up in the House of Commons in January, saying that “It’s easier to get a ticket to a Taylor Swift concert in this country in 2024 than a dentist appointment.”
The statement provoked some laughter in the Houses of Parliament in London. Mark Jones was not so amused: “There are people who are literally dying from septicemia as a result of dental abscesses.“We have a huge number of cases of mouth cancer diagnosed late, dental infections are the leading cause of children being admitted to hospital emergency services,” the founder of the Toothless in England charity told Radio Nacional. From his home in Suffolk, a region in the east of England, Mark Jones warns: “It’s no longer a crisis… it’s a national emergency!”
“It’s no longer a crisis… it’s a national emergency!“
Nine out of 10 dentists do not accept new patients
In theory, the NHS, the National Health Service, offers Free dental treatments for minors under 18, pregnant women and the most vulnerable citizensand guarantees access to dental care at regulated rates for other citizens. The reality is different: according to a study published in 2022 by the British Dental Association, the main organisation in the sector, 9 out of 10 dentists did not accept new patients through the public health system.
In Cornwall and Devon in the south-west of England, there are no professionals available for public care at all: Citizens have to travel tens of kilometres to attend an NHS consultationFor many, the only possibility of receiving treatment is through private healthcare, with prices that are unaffordable for low-income households.
“We are a family of four, with two small children. We can’t afford to pay for a private dentist“, explains Leah Smith to RNE. She is 35 years old and has not seen a dentist for four years. The practice in the small town where she lives, in Kessingland, in the Suffolk region, in the east of England, closed in 2020.
Leah went looking for a professional in the area, without success: “I tried it in all the surrounding towns, up to 50 kilometers from my house.. I was always told the same thing: we don’t accept anyone, you have to get on a waiting list.” Leah doesn’t hide her anger: “The moral of the story is that in the UK now, if you don’t pay, you can’t get access to basic care.”
A precarious NHS due to austerity policies and the pandemic
The dental crisis is just one reflection of the wider problems of the NHS. Decades of austerity policies and the coronavirus crisis have left Britain’s public health system in a disastrous state.. At the end of April, the latest data available, more than seven and a half million patients were on the waiting list for a hospital appointment, some for several months.
Getting an appointment with a general practitioner is also an exercise in patience with no guarantee of success. “It’s horrible,” says Raúl, a 34-year-old from Alicante, outside Saint Mary’s Hospital in London. “It’s better not to get sick here. If you do, they always prescribe you the same thing: paracetamol or ibuprofen.”“It doesn’t matter what you have.”
“It’s better not to get sick here. If you do, they always prescribe you the same thing: paracetamol or ibuprofen.“
“I had to insist over and over again to get tests done,” explains Joyce, 28. “I was in pain, I went to see the doctor and he sent me home. I went to see another one, and the same thing. And the third one admitted me because I needed an emergency operation to remove an abscess,” says the young woman, who says “being afraid of getting sick again.”
Cathy, 30, has not had such a negative experience. “I became a mother 15 months ago, and they treated me well, the care was very good,” she says, although she admits that “The staff was understaffed in the maternity ward“It was clear that they were exhausted by the volume of work.”
Protests by younger doctors
The difficulties faced by professionals have also been heard on the streets in recent months. The Junior Doctorsthe equivalent of resident doctors in Spain, were on strike for five daysuntil this Tuesday, to demand better working conditions. It was their eleventh strike in a year and a half. “In the last fifteen years, doctors in training have seen their salaries reduced by 26%,” explains Dr Laurenson, one of the spokesmen for the movement: “The situation is not sustainable!”
“Every year,” says another doctor, “there are 9,000 professionals trained here who decide to go to work in other countries.”“If we don’t get decent wages, we’re going to continue to have staffing problems, and patients won’t get the care they deserve.”
Discontent does not only affect resident doctors. Nurses and hospital doctors also went on strike to demand salary increases and better working conditions.Meanwhile, the image of the NHS, a source of pride for Britons since its creation after the Second World War, is deteriorating. In the annual survey published in March by the British Social Attitudes Institute, only a quarter of people interviewed – 24% – were satisfied with the functioning of the public health system. This is the lowest level of approval since the survey began in 1983.
The British are very critical, but they do not question the system itself. According to this survey, which is often used as a reference, they continue to overwhelmingly support the principles of the NHS: free (91% of favourable opinions), universal access (82%) and financing through taxes (81%).
The situation of the NHS is very present in the campaign
Even so, “This is the worst crisis the NHS has faced since its creation,” Mark Jones of Toothless in England says: Unsurprisingly, the future of the NHS – one of the UK’s top concerns – has been very much on the agenda of the campaign for the 4th July elections.
All political parties have put forward measures to reduce waiting lists. Labour and the Conservatives, the two major parties, have committed to increasing the resources of the public health system, but His promises “fall far short,” According to an analysis of the think tank Health Foundation published in late June.
The NHS would need around £38 billion more each year in the next parliamentary term —around 45 billion euros a year— to make up for decades of underinvestment and reduce backlogs for patients, say Health Foundation experts. An impossibility? “It has to be the absolute priority,” says Mark Jones: “Politicians are talking about the economy all the time. They should realise that there can be no economic growth in a country where workers are not in good health.”