North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) has unveiled plans to create a network of ‘urgent dental access centres’ to reduce waiting times for specialist minor oral surgery and orthodontic services.
At a recent board meeting, the ICB approved the new Oral Health and Dental Strategy, which aims to improve access to routine and urgent care appointments, tackle workforce recruitment and retention issues, and prevent poor oral health.
Dave Gallagher, chief contracting and procurement officer at the ICB, said: “Improving access to NHS dentistry is a key priority for the ICB.
“We’ve listened to feedback from patients and our partners and heard of the challenges that people are facing in accessing an appointment with their dentist.
“We also know how challenging it is for our workforce and want to support them to continue providing local NHS dental services.
“This strategy pulls together a number of initiatives we are working on with partners into one place, and is fully focused on protecting and growing NHS dentistry by supporting our fantastic dental teams and helping patients get the care they need.”