NHS Dentistry takes the piss

[gobbin]

AIBU to wonder why the Receptionist at my dental surgery gets pissy when I haven’t been for 2.5 years (because my teeth aren’t giving me any bother, I just thought I’d have a check up) and arsily suggests that ‘I’ll have to ask the dentist if he’s prepared to put you back on his books’.

Fuck me, my hospital consultant only sees me once a year for my well-managed, life-threatening chronic illness, my tits and fanny get seen every 3 years...what the fuck is so different about teeth that the dentist NEEDS to see a patient every six months. Apart from the kerching they get from the NHS, that is. Christ, if we all went to the GP every six months for a check up the system would be beyond breaking point.

NHS Dental Practice Manager here and apologies for the long post.
If a NHS practice doesn’t meet its targets then the funding is withdrawn after 2 years. To simplify things, if our target is achieved by seeing 15,000 patients and we mange only 13,000 (no matter what the reason- lack of dentists, lack of patients, snow days, patients not turning up) we get a breach notice and after two notices the funding is reduced to take into account the patients actually seen in the last two years. It is an uphill struggle to explain to patients and the attitude and abuse patients give for not being put back on the books is unbelievable. We don’t not want to see the patients but the funding has been removed so we can’t. So please attend your appointments regularly.

2nd point - To increase access, the 2006 NHS contract specifically stated that there is no concept of registered patient. A patient is defined as someone who is under treatment. If your treatment is over, technically you are not a patient. All practices I know like to keep their patients but they are not required to.

3rd point- our practice loses on average one dentist a year to private dentistry and ALL the dentists want to go private. It’s not because of the money but the target chasing stress that NHS puts on them. Retention in NHS dentistry is a major challenge that the govt doesn’t want to know about.

Final point about the money- I admit dentistry is a lucrative profession but a dentist studies for 5 years and then one year in training. They take out loans to fund their education and training. The practice owner has to buy specialist equipment and pay all staff costs. There is zero investment from the govt or NHS for capital costs for majority of practices. An average practice gets £25-£30 per patient where we are from the NHS. A private check up for the same will be in excess of £75 depending upon if X-rays are needed or not. Any number of fillings and root canal treatment costs £59.10 on the NHS. In a private setting patient pays around £350. It is a loss making procedure but all NHS practices still do it.

Dentistry gets really bad press and it is heartening to see messages of support here.
Yes, we have our challenges, but we try our best everyday for every patient.

Interesting explanation of the system SaGa, thank you.

The system is broken. Basically it costs the dentist money if the patient needs treatment.
Fortunately I work privately now with nhs kids. I wouldn’t go back!
I’m planning my exit strategy as well by investigating a sideways move into Clinical teaching.
The thread title is right- but not what you mean

Just to add OP, it is recommended to have annual checks for mouth cancer so a 2 yearly appointment is not recommended.