To ask you if our dentist can strike off husband from their nhs patient list without telling us?

[Teefteefteef]

So posting here for traffic:
Husband lost half of a filled tooth last night. The tooth is more filling than actual tooth. It looks very much like it needs to either be removed or crowned. Not in pain yet but only half the tooth is remaining. He called our nhs dentist to book an appointment. Was told that seeing as he hasn’t had an appointment over the last 3 years that they now consider him a new patient and he would have to pay full private fees because, (surprise surprise,) they aren’t taking on nhs patients at the moment. Does anybody know if there is a code of conduct I can reference? To see if they are actually allowed to just strike people off? We think this may be a bit unfair seeing as they weren’t actually seeing anything other than emergency patients the majority of the time for the first huge chunk of covid. Any insight would be very helpful.

The thing is, NHS dental practices have a cap on the amount of NHS dental treatment they can deliver. NHS England set this cap, so once a practice meets their target, they are not allowed to see anymore NHS patients for the rest of the financial year. NHS England only pay for about 50% of englands population to receive nhs dental care so that’s why none of you can find a NHS dentist.
If you want to complain, I’d suggest writing to your local MP

@LegoPandemic

Very glad I am a private dentist and can set my own fees. NHS dentistry is in its death throes.

Erm what?
I've had 6 monthly appointments forever, then the dentist changed them to yearly maybe 5 years ago.
Appointment was due in April 2020, which they cancelled due to covid and advised they'd reschedule my appointment when they reopened. I rang a month or so after reopening and they advised they were only taking emergency appointments and that again, they would contact me to reschedule. It's now almost January 2022 and I haven't been to the dentist since April 2019...

My long-term dentist is in my home country. I see her twice a year and I try to get everything done there as she is a lot cheaper than UK dentists. I still have check-ups twice a year with my local dentist as I really don't want to lose my place in case of an emergency.

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

Yes, they can - our dental practice is very clear on that: if we don’t make regular appointments for check-ups, we lose our place on their books. Not surprising - why should they keep you on as patients if you’re not using them?

The regular check ups thing is perhaps against common sense when people needing treatment are unable to see a dentist.

@Fretfulmum

The thing is, NHS dental practices have a cap on the amount of NHS dental treatment they can deliver. NHS England set this cap, so once a practice meets their target, they are not allowed to see anymore NHS patients for the rest of the financial year. NHS England only pay for about 50% of englands population to receive nhs dental care so that’s why none of you can find a NHS dentist. If you want to complain, I’d suggest writing to your local MP

Do you have a source for that? I'd like to be brutally accurate when I write.

@LittleroundRobin
What PP are trying to say is that there is a limit to what NHS dentists can be paid. They will sometimes make a loss on NHS treatment if it involves a lot of work. Hence wanting patients to come regularly so treatment can be provided early and be kept minimal, for the patients sake mainly!
Also, all dentists cannot just be NHS. You couldn’t tell all hairdressers that they have to work for the government. Dentists are self employed and can set up their business wherever and however they choose. If they want and can get an NHS contract, which as previously mentioned, are few and far between in relation to the population size, they can work under certain conditions for certain pay (capped.) But there is no where near enough funding to apply this to every practice and it also means no one would be able to access things that are not covered by NHS. (Implants/whitening etc..)

You can be strick off for not attending the doctors as DH found out last year. It had been 4 years since his last appointment and he'd been struck off about 18 months earlier.

That’s ridiculous! If you’re not I’ll you won’t be going to the doctors! What was he supposed to do, pop along and say hi? I haven’t seen a doctor for nearly 2 years or spoken to them for 18 months and long May it continue

@mumda that's the truth of it and is one of the reasons I left clinical practice to get away from patients telling me they'd paid for my 15 year old VW Golf... I now work in healthcare commissioning and would not return to front line care unless I'm at risk of losing my house.

The public just do not understand and they simply do not want to.

@mumda, since 2006 every NHS practice has a contract with the NHS, which states how many UDAs (Units of Dental Activity) the practice has to perform each year. The number of UDAs varies from practice to practice and depends on several factors. Once the practice has met their target for the year they are not paid for any further NHS work they carry out in that contractual year. This doesn't mean they aren't allowed to do provide any further treatment, just that they won't make any money if they do!
There are more patients looking for NHS treatment than NHS practices can accept and this is why the government scrapped the two year registration in 2006 to give everyone the same chance to see a dentist. You are only a patient of the practice whilst undergoing a course of treatment.

Yes that is quite common practice now. Nothing much you can do about it.

Yep. Happened to me too. Get your DH's name down on the waiting list.
Only 600 names down before me apparently, sure I'll get an appointment any day now!

Many dentists have used the 2 year rule as a way to shed their nhs patients. Ours wouldn't let us book any appointments and now say we're no longer registered.

Nhs dentistry is no longer available in the U.K. n

[quote MilkLady02]@LittleroundRobin
What PP are trying to say is that there is a limit to what NHS dentists can be paid. They will sometimes make a loss on NHS treatment if it involves a lot of work. Hence wanting patients to come regularly so treatment can be provided early and be kept minimal, for the patients sake mainly!
Also, all dentists cannot just be NHS. You couldn’t tell all hairdressers that they have to work for the government. Dentists are self employed and can set up their business wherever and however they choose. If they want and can get an NHS contract, which as previously mentioned, are few and far between in relation to the population size, they can work under certain conditions for certain pay (capped.) But there is no where near enough funding to apply this to every practice and it also means no one would be able to access things that are not covered by NHS. (Implants/whitening etc..)[/quote]
That makes more sense thank you!

@RhubarbFairy

You can be struck off for not attending the doctors as DH found out last year. It had been 4 years since his last appointment and he'd been struck off about 18 months earlier.

What? I have never known this happen - ever. Why would the GP do that??? (You're talking about the UK are you?)

@LittleRoundRobin

I don't understand the comments people are making about dentists booting people off so they can get private. They make the same money whether the patient is NHS or private don't they? As the NHS patients have a portion of their costs paid (by the NHS.) So if they did 2 crowns (for example,) that cost £1200 for the two, the NHS patient would pay the tier 3 amount (£282,) and the NHS would fork out the rest for the dentist.

Happy to be corrected. But I am pretty sure this is what happens.

Many private dental fees - especially for crowns/bridges/dentures/veneers can run into the low 4 figures. I don't understand why people don't keep up their dental checks. You need a tooth crowned - max £282 NHS, as much as £700-£800 privately. Sometimes more.

You appear to have completely contradicted yourself within a single post

@Clymene

Nhs dentistry is no longer available in the U.K.

I'm pretty sure it is! I, and many other people I know are registered with an NHS dentist...

@LegoPandemic

Very glad I am a private dentist and can set my own fees. NHS dentistry is in its death throes.

I hope your teeth fall out.

@LittleRoundRobin, dentists definitely don't get paid the same money for NHS treatments as they do for private treatment! NHS treatment is paid in UDAs (Units of Dental Activity) and each unit has a monetary value of roughly £28. A Band 1 treatment (one UDA) will cost the patient £23.80 and the balance of £4.20 is paid by the NHS. A Band 3, which covers crowns, dentures and bridges incurs twelve UDAs - the patient charge is £282.80 and the NHS pay £53.20 to top the payment up to the maximum UDA fee of £336. Once you take into account lab fees and the cost of running the surgery for the duration of the appointments, there's not much of the NHS fee left!
Hope this helps.

@Clymene

You appear to have completely contradicted yourself within a single post.

WTF are you on about?

And that's rich considering that YOU are posting complete nonsense. Saying there are no more NHS dentists in the UK. As I said, WTF are you on about?

And as for saying "I hope your teeth fall out..." .. to a poster who said they are a private dentist who said they are glad they're private...

Maybe lay off the wine eh?

Yep, I recently got kicked out for exactly this, despite the fact that they haven’t been offering appointments for a good chunk of the last two years

@AllergictoWerewolves 'milklady02' already explained, but thanks for that anyway. As I said in my post, I was happy to be corrected/informed properly.

@LittleRoundRobin, sorry for the crossed post - it took me so long to type someone beat me to it
It's very confusing, even more so when they throw in the 1.2 UDAs and the two month continuation rule....

Yes. I you miss your 6 monthly appointment you're off the nhs list. There's so much demand they have to in order to make sure appointments aren't wasted surely

Unfortunately LegoPandemic is not being unrealistic. NHS dentistry has always been at the bottom of the priority list for healthcare spending and there will be even less funding available post covid. NHS practices have costs and overheads just as private ones do. If you run a business and can charge the actual cost of something rather than a completely made up NHS fee which has no bearing on the outlay the dentist provides, why wouldn’t you? NHS dentistry has been underfunded for a very long time and if the general public don’t make enough noise about it, it will disappear.

[quote AllergictoWerewolves]@LittleRoundRobin, sorry for the crossed post - it took me so long to type someone beat me to it
It's very confusing, even more so when they throw in the 1.2 UDAs and the two month continuation rule....[/quote]
Don't apologise! I am still grateful for the response.