Making a dental appointment in Dudley borough - a mystery shopper exercise
We worked with the Dudley Council's Children and Young Peoples Public Health Team to contact every dental practice in the borough that offers NHS dental appointments. We wanted to discover what it was like to find an NHS dental appointment in the borough.
Summary
We called 40 dental practices across the Dudley borough, presenting as a local person looking to make an NHS dental appointment. We called practices with three different scenarios to discover the experience of booking routine and urgent appointments. We also looked to see if there was a difference in provision for adult and child appointments.
Key findings
- Dental practices prioritise urgent appointments over routine check-ups.
- There was a lack of signposting to appropriate support when dental practices were unable to provide an appointment.
- 38% of dental practices requested that callers register before being offered an appointment.
- 75% of practices offered a private routine appointment when there were no NHS routine appointments available.
Downloads
If you need the reports in a different format, please email hello@healthwatchdudley.co.uk or call 03000 111 001.
File download
Making an NHS dental appointment in Dudley borough - a mystery shopper exercise
If seen privately, I could have an appointment for 5pm the next day at a cost of £150.
