NHS Dental Waiting List Allocations & Patient Preferences

Summary

The Department of Health and Social Care disclosed NHS dental waiting list sizes and allocation numbers for late 2025 but confirmed it does not hold data regarding patient preferences or audit trails linking preferences to allocations.

Key Facts

• The Department of Health and Social Care does not hold information on patient preferences for dental practices or geographical areas.
• There is no audit trail available to link a patient's stated preference to their eventual allocation.
• Waiting list and allocation data is supplied to the Department by Manx Care via the Integrated Performance Report (IPR).
• The number of patients on the waiting list increased from 1,756 in November 2025 to 2,008 in December 2025.
• Discrepancies in allocation numbers between reports are due to retrospective changes as additional patients were allocated after the initial submission date.

Data Disclosed

• 1756
• 2008
• 96
• 214
• 442
• 488
• 5183
• 35
• 99
• 134
• 92
• 1 May 2025
• 12 January 2026
• November 2025
• December 2025
• IPCC7
• IPCC9

Original Request

Please provide the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2015.

For the period 1 May 2025 to 12 January 2026 (or the latest data held within this range):

Waiting list size

Total number of patients remaining on the NHS dental waiting list as at the most recent date available within this period.

Allocations

Total number of patients allocated an NHS dental place from the dental waiting list.

Of those patients, how many were:

a) Allocated to their stated preferred dental practice

b) Allocated within their stated preferred geographical area

c) Allocated outside any stated preference

Patient preference data

Is patient preference for dental practice and/or area recorded when joining the dental waiting list?

If yes, how is this preference recorded (e.g., free text, coded field, manual record)?

Is this preference data held in a format that allows extraction or analysis?

Allocation records

Is the dental practice to which a patient is allocated recorded at the point their details are forwarded to a provider?

Is there an audit trail that links a patient's stated preference to their eventual allocation?

Information not held

If any of the above information is not held, please specify:

a) Which information is not held

b) Why it is not held

Responsibility

Please confirm whether responsibility for holding this information rests with Manx Care, DHSC, or both.

If any information is withheld, please cite the specific exemption relied upon.