The South West London LDC met with some of the practices involved in the current dental pilot operating in south west London. The pilot which launched in April and began in June was designed to increase access to dental care for children from deprived areas who had not seen a dentist for more than two years and to increase access for those with diabetes.
The LDC heard that while there was great enthusiasm from practices and staff members and a lot of support and regular meetings with the team from the Integrated Care Board, numbers accessing the pilot remained low. This was partly the result of timing, with the training of practices only being completed in April and engagement starting a little later, just before the summer holidays.
The lack of children at school meant that this avenue for identifying and contacting the target group was reduced and other avenues such as posters at GPs and pharmacies had not had a significant impact.
The LDC has regular meetings with the ICB dental team and will be discussing the pilot with them to see what other avenues there are to increase access. There is a known backlog of children on the Community Dental Services waiting list and some of these children could be seen as part of the pilot, this is an avenue the LDC will discuss as well as extending the pilots into term time.
