The number of emergency dental appointment slots at government clinics has fallen by almost half since the pandemic, the Audit Commission said on Wednesday, as it called for improvements to services.

In a report, the government auditor said there was an annual quota of around 40,000 appointment slots at the city’s 11 public dental clinics in the year 2018/19, but this had fallen to about 20,000 by 2022/23.

It cited the Department of Health as saying the reduction was due to the pandemic, but also a shortage of dentists.

The auditor said it found instances of people queuing up for hours at clinics just to try to get an appointment the following day under the first-come-first served system.

At one clinic, people who had pre-registered to see the dentist still had to arrive in the morning to pick up a disc for an appointment that wasn’t until the afternoon.

The auditor noted that the government is aware of the public demand for more appointment slots for emergency dental care and urged it to address the manpower shortage and bring the quota back up to at least the level before the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the public spending watchdog said health officials should beef up support for NGOs involved in the Outreach Dental Care Programme, which provides free dental services to elderly people in care homes.

The auditor said the attendance rate for the programme needs to be improved, noting that the target of 43,000 service users was not met from 2020/21 to 2022/23.

Two NGOs served less than half the number of people they aimed to for three consecutive years, the auditor added.