Tens of thousands of NHS dental patients in Newry and Armagh have seen their registrations lapse or be removed in recent years, new Department of Health figures show – prompting warnings that local NHS dentistry could be “at the beginning of the end”.
The statistics, released in a written Assembly answer from Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to Newry and Armagh DUP MLA Gareth Wilson, reveal a dramatic rise in the number of health service dental registrations ending in the constituency since 2020/21.
The figures relate to patients registered with NHS dentists whose practices are located in the Newry and Armagh Assembly area and show:
2020/21 – 388 registrations ended (383 lapsed; 5 manually de‑registered)
2021/22 – 506 ended (473 lapsed; 33 manual)
2022/23 – 2,364 ended (2,305 lapsed; 59 manual)
2023/24 – 7,786 ended (7,199 lapsed; 587 manual)
2024/25 – 33,275 ended (29,925 lapsed; 68 manual; 3,282 block de‑registrations)
2025/26 – 9,693 ended up to 31 December 2025 (7,860 lapsed; 41 manual; 1,792 block de‑registrations)
While some patients may appear more than once in the statistics if they moved between Assembly areas, the overall trend shows a steep increase in registrations being lost, particularly from 2022/23 onwards.
The Department explains that “lapsed registrations” are mostly cases where a patient has not been seen by their dentist for 24 months.
During the Covid‑19 pandemic, NHS dental registrations were extended, which significantly reduced the number of lapses between 2020/21 and 2022/23.
Once those extensions unwound, lapse numbers surged: from 2,305 in 2022/23 to 7,199 in 2023/24, and then to almost 30,000 in 2024/25 alone.
Manual de‑registrations, where a dentist actively submits a form to remove a patient from their NHS list, also rose sharply to 587 in 2023/24 before dropping back to 68 in 2024/25.
In May 2024, the de‑registration form was changed to allow “block de‑registrations”, enabling practices to remove multiple patients at once. That mechanism was used to de‑register 3,282 patients in 2024/25 and a further 1,792 in the first nine months of 2025/26.
Reacting to the figures, DUP MLA Gareth Wilson said they would “deeply concern” patients across Newry and Armagh.
“These figures are nothing short of shocking,” he said.
“Over the past number of years, we have seen the equivalent of more than 54,000 NHS dental registrations either lapse or be actively de‑registered in local practices. That is equivalent to almost 44% of the population of the constituency.
“Behind every one of these figures is a patient who may now find themselves without access to an NHS dentist. We know that many people are already struggling to access NHS dental care, facing long waits, closed patient lists, or being forced to go private at significant cost, with my office dealing with many residents left in limbo due to the costs of badly needed dental procedures. These figures appear to confirm what many families are already experiencing in reality.”
Mr Wilson said the sharp rise in the last number of years – and particularly the “dramatic spike” in 2024/25 – raised serious questions about capacity and whether patients were being lost because they could not secure appointments within the required two‑year window.
“This is likely to have frightening consequences for oral health, which could in turn put more pressure on primary care,” he warned.
“The Health Minister needs to address this growing crisis and quickly outline steps to reverse this decline, or this could mark the beginning of the end for NHS dentistry locally.”
Lapsed registrations do not automatically mean patients will be unable to re‑register, but they do indicate large numbers who have not been seen within the required time period – or who may have lost their place with a particular practice.
