London NHS dental access edges up as borough gaps persist
London’s NHS dental access improved only modestly through 2023–25, with 39.3% of adults seen in the two years to March 2024 and 52.9% of children seen in the 12 months to March 2024, while national activity rose to 35 million courses of treatment and 73 million UDAs in 2024/25, signalling a recovery that is uneven across the capital.
NHS Business Services Authority data show England delivered 35 million courses of treatment and 73 million Units of Dental Activity in 2024/25, up 4% and under 1% respectively on 2023/24, alongside 18 million adult patients seen in the 24 months to 31 March 2025 and 6.9 million children seen in the 12 months to that date; London’s share is not separately published in that release but the access gap versus England is evidenced by earlier year regional splits.
London Assembly analysis, using NHSBSA regional figures for 2023/24, places adult access at 39.3% in the two years to March 2024 against an England average of 40.3%, and child access at 52.9% in the 12 months to March 2024 versus 55.4% nationally, indicating the capital trails by a few points even as volumes stabilise.
The equity dimension is explicit at borough level: in the two years to March 2024, adult access ranged from 26.2% in Tower Hamlets to 53.2% in Lewisham, while in the year to March 2024 child access ran from 37.8% in Hackney to 67.6% in Haringey, underscoring how capacity and take-up vary within a single commissioning region.
Policy levers were active across the same window: NHS England’s dental recovery plan introduced a new patient premium from 1 March 2024 to 31 March 2025 and raised the minimum UDA rate from April 2024, measures designed to draw in new patients and stabilise provision, but the persistence of borough variation suggests that incentives alone have not closed the access gap.
Across counts, rates and medians, the picture is mixed: national throughput ticked up in 2024/25, London’s adult and child access remained below England in 2023/24, and local extremes widened the postcode effect, with progress dependent on how recovery funding and contracting changes reach areas with the thinnest provision.
Figures cited are from NHSBSA “Dental Statistics, England 2024/25” (published 28 August 2025, covering activity to 31 March 2025), NHSBSA “Dental Statistics, England 2023/24” (published 22 August 2024), the London Assembly Health Committee report “Decay and delay” (January 2025, using NHS data to March 2024), and NHS England’s update on the Dental Recovery Plan (10 May 2024).
