Access to NHS dental services
Published
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It has been replaced by
Patient access to and satisfaction with NHS dental services.
1. Main facts and figures
New data for the period 2020/21 is available if you download the data. The charts, tables and commentary on this page cover the period 2017/18 and do not include the new data.
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overall in 2017/18, 94.6% of people who tried to get an NHS dental appointment were successful in doing so, the same percentage as in 2016/17; the figure has remained around 95% over the years covered by the survey
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people from the White British and White Irish ethnic groups were the most likely to report success in getting an NHS dental appointment in 2017/18
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between 2011/12 and 2017/18, the White British and White Irish ethnic groups were consistently among the 3 ethnic groups most likely to report success in getting an appointment
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in 2017/18, people from the Any other and Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic groups were the least likely to report success in getting an NHS dental appointment – however, the findings are less reliable for the Gypsy or Irish Traveller group because of the small numbers of respondents
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between 2011/12 and 2017/18, the Any other, Black African and Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic groups were consistently among the 5 ethnic groups least likely to report success in getting an NHS dental appointment
Things you need to know
Bear in mind that the trends shown in the data may not extend beyond the time series of this analysis.
This data does not allow us to assess whether observed differences between ethnic groups have occurred as a result of chance. Although the number of respondents taking part each year is relatively large (in 2017/18 around 400,000 people responded to the dentistry questions), caution should still be used when comparing satisfaction levels between ethnic groups or over time.
In previous years there were only 250,000 to 300,000 responses, as the dentistry questions were included in only one of the two survey waves. As a result, the sample sizes for some ethnic groups may be small throughout the period.
All survey estimates are subject to a degree of uncertainty as they are based on a sample of the population. The degree of uncertainty is greater when the number of respondents is small, so it will be highest for ethnic minority groups.
This is particularly the case for Gypsy or Irish Traveller, the group found to be the least likely to report successfully booking an appointment in 2017/18, with roughly 85% doing so. This figure is based on a small number of respondents (120 in 2017/18) and has been variable year on year.
What the data measures
This data measures the percentage of people from different ethnic groups in England who had tried to get an NHS dental appointment and were successful.
The data source is the GP patient survey (GPPS), commissioned by NHS England and conducted by Ipsos MORI.
Patients are eligible for the survey if they live in England and:
- are aged 16 years and over – however, respondents aged 16 and 17 years are not included in this data (or any other NHS Digital data)
- have an NHS number
- have been registered with a GP for 6 months
The ethnic categories used in this data
This data uses the standardised ethnic groups based on the 2011 Census:
White:
- English/Welsh/ Scottish/Northern Irish/British (‘White British’)
- Irish
- Gypsy or Irish Traveller
- Any other White background
Mixed/Multiple ethnic group:
- White and Black Caribbean
- White and Black African
- White and Asian
- Any other Mixed/Multiple ethnic background
Asian/Asian British:
- Indian
- Pakistani
- Bangladeshi
- Chinese
- Any other Asian background
Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:
- African
- Caribbean
- Any other Black/African/Caribbean background
Other ethnic group:
- Arab
- Any other ethnic group
2. By ethnicity over time
| Ethnicity | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | 94.5 | 94.9 | 94.8 | 95.0 | 94.7 | 94.6 | 94.6 |
| Asian | |||||||
| Bangladeshi | 90.4 | 88.1 | 92.7 | 91.6 | 90.8 | 90.3 | 91.0 |
| Chinese | 93.2 | 94.2 | 92.9 | 94.9 | 91.9 | 92.0 | 93.0 |
| Indian | 91.8 | 91.2 | 91.6 | 91.2 | 90.5 | 91.0 | 91.6 |
| Pakistani | 90.4 | 90.2 | 91.3 | 91.2 | 91.1 | 91.4 | 91.2 |
| Asian other | 90.7 | 91.7 | 88.7 | 90.9 | 90.2 | 90.7 | 90.6 |
| Black | |||||||
| Black African | 87.2 | 88.8 | 88.6 | 88.1 | 89.2 | 88.0 | 88.4 |
| Black Caribbean | 94.9 | 93.2 | 93.4 | 93.8 | 93.0 | 94.4 | 93.7 |
| Black other | 88.2 | 91.0 | 89.6 | 91.0 | 91.2 | 90.4 | 89.9 |
| Mixed | |||||||
| Mixed White/Asian | 92.6 | 92.3 | 94.6 | 94.3 | 94.2 | 94.6 | 94.1 |
| Mixed White/Black African | 91.7 | 86.0 | 87.8 | 90.1 | 88.1 | 90.0 | 90.1 |
| Mixed White/Black Caribbean | 92.0 | 93.4 | 91.7 | 94.8 | 95.0 | 92.2 | 93.0 |
| Mixed other | 89.4 | 93.3 | 91.2 | 93.9 | 91.1 | 91.8 | 92.9 |
| White | |||||||
| White British | 95.4 | 95.7 | 95.6 | 95.8 | 95.6 | 95.5 | 95.5 |
| White Irish | 94.7 | 94.6 | 94.1 | 95.8 | 95.3 | 95.4 | 94.8 |
| White Gypsy/Traveller | 86.2 | 87.2 | 86.2 | 89.7 | 87.6 | 80.8 | 85.3 |
| White other | 90.9 | 91.3 | 91.6 | 91.3 | 90.3 | 90.5 | 90.5 |
| Other | |||||||
| Arab | 90.4 | 92.5 | 86.4 | 88.7 | 92.3 | 91.1 | 91.5 |
| Any other | 87.2 | 88.5 | 88.7 | 87.6 | 87.2 | 88.6 | 87.0 |
| Unknown | 91.7 | 93.0 | 92.3 | 92.7 | 91.6 | 93.2 | 92.0 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity over time’ (CSV)
Summary of Access to NHS dental services By ethnicity over time Summary
The data shows that:
- overall in 2017/18, 94.6% of people who tried to get an NHS dental appointment were successful in doing so, the same percentage as in 2016/17; the figure has remained around 95% over the years covered by the survey
- patients most likely to report successfully booking an appointment were from the White British ethnic group (95.5%), followed by those in the White Irish (94.8%) and Mixed White and Asian (94.1%) groups – the percentage for White British patients was consistently above the national average
- patients least likely to report successfully booking an appointment were from the Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group (85.3%), followed by those in the Any other (87.0%) and Black African (88.4%) ethnic groups – the percentages for these groups were consistently below the national average
- between 2011/12 and 2017/18, the Gypsy or Irish Traveller ethnic group was consistently among the 4 groups least likely to report successfully booking an appointment – however, the results for this group are the least reliable as they are based on very small numbers of survey respondents
3. Methodology
The GP patient survey has been designed to give patients the opportunity to provide feedback about their experiences of their NHS GP and dentistry services across a variety of issues.
Over a whole-year cycle, about 2.1 million surveys are sent out and about 800,000 responses are received. The average response rate is 37.5%.
Respondents can respond by post, online or by phone. Respondents may request a questionnaire in a different language, in braille or online using sign language.
Surveys collect information from a random sample of the target population to make generalisations (reach ‘findings’) about everyone within that population.
All surveys carry the risk of biased results if some types of people are less likely to respond than others. To compensate for this, data from the GPPS is weighted to account for this non-response bias. This adjusts the data to account for potential differences between the demographic profile of all eligible patients in a practice and the patients who actually complete the questionnaire. The non-response weighting scheme has been developed by Ipsos MORI, incorporating elements such as age and gender. It also includes factors from the area where the respondent lives, such as level of deprivation, ethnicity profile and Acorn classification, which have been shown to affect non-response bias.
For further information see NHS England’s GP patient survey website.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
Data is suppressed if fewer than 10 people answered the question in a particular group.
Rounding
Values are given to 1 decimal place.
Related publications
NHS Outcomes Framework England, November 2018 (PDF opens in a new window or tab) (statistical commentary, PDF)
Quality and methodology information
Further technical information
GP Patient Survey technical annex (PDF opens in a new window or tab) (PDF)
4. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
NHS Digital
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Feedback from patients on their experience, treatment and care is an important source of information for helping local clinicians and managers to improve the quality of service design and healthcare.
The GP patient survey (GPPS) responses used for this measure offer healthcare providers insights that can help improve GP surgeries and the services they provide.
Secondary source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
NHS England
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
Feedback from patients on their experience, treatment and care is an important source of information for helping local clinicians and managers to improve the quality of service design and healthcare.
The GP patient survey (GPPS) responses used for this measure offer healthcare providers insights that can help improve GP surgeries and the services the provide.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value, confidence intervals (upper bound, lower bound).