A health watchdog said elderly people in Sefton are losing weight because they can’t eat after struggling to find anywhere to get their dentures fixed.
Healthwatch said it is also receiving calls for people needing urgent dental treatment but has “nowhere to signpost people” due to a severe shortage of dentists in the borough.
According to an update report from Healthwatch presented to a meeting of Sefton Council’s adult social care and health overview and scrutiny committee last week, the lack of dentists in the borough “continues to be of grave concern.”
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The report notes that 75% of calls through to Healthwatch are from people searching for dental treatment. It states that people are being told to contact the health and social care champion after failing to find a dentist when being referred via the local urgent care service for emergency treatment.
According to Healthwatch, this is “raising patient expectations and we have nowhere to signpost people.”
The report gives an example of CrosbyVillage Dental practice, which no longer has any NHS dentists, leading to a number of calls through to the health watchdog.
The practice has told Healthwatch it is “struggling” to recruit replacement NHS dentists, according to the report.
The situation is so dire it’s leaving some elderly patients struggling to eat.
The report states that for some patients in need of denture repairs there is “nowhere for often elderly, frail patients to get help, which then impacts on their ability to eat and leads to weight loss.”
Healthwatch said it has “highlighted” concerns to NHS England, including “that their communications to patients do not support local understanding of the current access issues.”
It adds: “We are aware that Dentistry commissioning will be picked up at some point next year by NHS Cheshire and Merseyside and all nine local Healthwatch are keeping a watchful eye on this.”
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