Norwich dental practice gets 16,000 applications from patients in a day

A dental practice which has space for 200 NHS patients was inundated with more than 16,000 applications.

Friends Dental Practice in Wroxham Road, Norwich, only opened its books a week ago but within less than 24 hours, it had received thousands of inquiries.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting described Norfolk and Waveney, in Suffolk as “the Sahara of dental deserts”.

Georgina Rowe, practice manager, said: “We expected to get a lot. We didn’t expect to get 16,000.”

The practice which takes on both NHS and private patients, currently has about 3,000 NHS patients on its books.

With the practice’s building being extended, it was able to reopen its books for more patients.

During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Adrian Ramsay, Waveney Valley MP, asked when negotiations about dental contract reforms would take place so “no-one in the 21st century has to pull out their own teeth”.

He said: “Ninety-nine per cent of new patients in the East of England are unable to find an NHS dentist. The worst affected area in the country.”

Ms Rowe who has worked at the practice for more than three years said interest in the surgery came as “no surprise”.

“We do get calls everyday asking if we are taking NHS patients on… on the Thursday we released at 17:00 BST on our social media that we were going to take NHS patients on… we had planned to keep it open until the following Monday but obviously by 09:00 the next morning we had thousands, over 16,000.”

While the practice can only take on between 200 and 250 new NHS patients, she said it had been in talks with the NHS over “limited funding”.

“It shows people are desperate,” she said.

Dr Alba Torrado-Varela has been working in the United Kingdom as a dentist for the past 14 years.

She said: “Demand is huge. It’s always been really busy in the practices I’ve worked at… I’ve never known anything like this.

“It’s been tough… it means a lot of people are not able to access dental care.”

She said if there was a possibility the practice could help it was “happy to lend a helping hand”.

The practice is now in the process of choosing patients, and said it would start off by prioritising children.

A spokesperson for the NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB), said the demand for dental services was not unique to Norfolk and Waveney.

It said: “Since taking on responsibility for dental services in 2023, we have already made improvements to access and treatment, but we know there is still much more to do.

“This year we are investing an additional £7m into services which will improve access for new patients, establish child-focussed dental practices, recruit and retain our valued staff and continue our newly established urgent treatment service.

“These are priorities local people told us were important to them when we engaged with them earlier this year.

“We are absolutely committed to improving dental care for our local patients and communities.”