The Health Minister says a new way of paying contractors could be the way forward to cutting the ever-growing waiting list for NHS dentists.

Claire Christian revealed the waiting list had now grown to 6,420 which was as low as four before the Covid pandemic.

She admitted Manx Care had struggled to recruit a fourth dentist at the NHS Hillside practice but says work is underway to address the issues plaguing the system.

She was responding to a question from Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper at this week’s House of Keys who asked her what the availability is of NHS dentistry.

Ms Christian told the House: ‘There are currently seven contractors delivering NHS dental services from nine practices across the island.

‘Manx Care also has a salaried dental practice Hillside and the community dental service which provides special dental care and is responsible for the delivery of the emergency central service Monday to Friday for patients who do not have access to a dentist.’

Between April 2024 and March 2025 there was a total of 52,389 unique patients seen by the NHS dental practices which equates to an average of 4,366 unique patients seen per month.

‘There is also currently a waiting list for patients who wish to access NHS dentists,’ Ms Christian added. ‘As of March 31, 2025, there was 6,420 patients waiting for allocation to an NHS dental provider.

‘There have been 601patients allocated to an NHS dentist since January 2025.’

Mr Hooper raised concerns over the lack of NHS dentists in the north of the island after one withdrew from the NHS contract earlier this year. He says there is just one NHS dentist serving 15,000 people in the north.

Mrs Christian said she did not have the regional breakdown to hand but would supply it in due course.

But she did say Manx Care had, through the Treasury, sought to gauge interest dental contractors to provide NHS dental services. She said two contractors have expressed an interest but the tender process have been delayed.

Onchan MHK Julie Edge pointed out there were only four people on the waiting list pre-Manx Care in 2019, and it has gone up and up to more than 6,000. She asked what is broken with the system?

Ms Christian explained that there was an incentivised programme that year financed by the department which offered generous contracts which has since been discontinued.

A unit of dental activity (UDA) is a measure for the amount of work done during dental treatments and Ms Christian says Manx Care is looking to unify the measurements and simply the system to attract more contractors.

There have been three recruitment processes to select a fourth dentist at Hillside but that has not been successful so far, Ms Christian admitted. She says Manx Care even employed an ‘industry-specific headhunter’ who has also found it difficult to find a qualified, experienced dentist to take up the position.

She added: ‘Manx Care is seeking a different approach to address the waiting list which looks at changes to how dental contractors are paid by unifying the UDA rate, Manx Care will create the incentive for dental contractors to take on patients and significantly reduce the waiting list.’

She could not say what figure they hope to get to but says ideally it would be to reduce the waiting list completely.