Dentist wants 95 pounds to register child as an NHS patient

[surreyisik]

Hi all,
Just wanted to get some views here. High street dentist wants us to register as a patient first to take DS as an NHS patient. It's fine until this point, but they say they can only do this if we register as a private patient ourselves (£95) and get checked regularly with at least something basic such as teeth cleaning (£75)
Do you think this is acceptable? Why do we have to pay to make sure our son can become an NHS patient and not pay?? It feels unfair, especially for families who can't afford it.

It does feel unacceptable but dentists are all private that take on nhs work (either full or part time).
I completely agree that it’s unfair but where I am we’re a bit stuck dancing to their tune!

I think that the General Dental Council (GDC) would not look happily upon this.

I feel the same. I understand why we have to register - let's say they have no capacity for adult NHS patients, so not ideal but has to be processed that way. But then why do we have to receive checks twice a year?? This is where it seemed really dodgy to me!

my private dental practice is shutting down
I phoned a (private) practice 9 miles away that's well regarded: they hope to start accepting new patients in 2024.

tomorrow I need to summon my patience to try to register with a (private) practice 20 miles away : my current dentist also works there and thinks they are accepting new patients. The other (private) practice she works at definitely isn't accepting new patients.

Yes it's all a bit crap. And I'm going private !!

I think it's quite common, ours are at a private dentist as NHS patients and I pay a lot for my treatment. When my NHS dentist left another practice and I needed to get a hospital referral dealt with so had to move private. It's crap but if you don't take the space someone else will. It's wrong I know.

My concern would be that they would then carry out unnecessary work on the adults to make up the money and most of us take professionals at their word when they say something needs doing and would have the work done. Seems very dodgy practice and I would be querying the BDC

This has been the case for as long as I can remember, private practices offering NHS dentistry to the children of their private patients.

The big problem is the poor funding for NHS dental treatment which has resulted in so many mainly practices stopping doing NHS work.

^shouls say mainly NHS

^should FFS

This isn’t what the GDC is for, you can raise it with the NHS board but they’re not going to do anything with that information as it’s common practice.

They will only see kids of their private patients.

And to be a private patient, to stay on their books you need a certain number of reviews or they will take you off their books.

Mine we just pay a certain amount monthly, regardless of checks. And they keep the kids as NHS patients.

They are not doing anything dodgy.

You would need proof to bring that to the GDC and the BDA don’t deal with this.

im not saying I agree - I travel quite far for my NHS dentist and do worry about them closing their doors

Have to say I thought this was normal. It's what happened when I was a child NHS patient and I have deliberately registered myself as a private patient at a practice now that will take my son as NHS. Of course to stay on the books you have to have regular adult check ups.
Don't be cross with the dentist trying to run a business and make ends meet, be cross with the terrible funding for NHS dentistry which means this situation is necessary.

It’s outrageous

They aren't doing anything wrong.

They're just telling you they only register kids as NHS patients of their private patients.

And they are telling the requirements of being a private patient.

Most dentists will take you off the register if you arent being seen regularly unless you are on the monthly plans. Even NHS patients get taken off the register if they arent seen regularly.

It's a miracle you found a dentist taking on NHS patients at all to be honest. Practically all dentists in my area are only taking private patients and don't give any timescales for taking any NHS work. It's not ideal but I guess when they are private, it's "my clinic, my rules". NHS prices for dental work is one thing but I guess they can do as they please when registering people?

OP, you mention twice yearly checks... if you have decent oral hygiene this is now down to every 9 - 12 months rather than every six.

It's always been 6 monthly checks,.its only now where there isnt enough NHS dentists around they've started saying 9-12 monthly checks.

I had this. Told me to register private and then child would be on NHS through them. Then without informing us, stopped their NHS offering.
So all private now. No option but to pay.

I’d say it’s standard - I had to register as a private patient to get my child registered as NHS. I can’t get an NHS dentist anyway so bad no choice

It’s a perfectly ordinary practice that is very commonplace. Effectively it means a dentist will, as a courtesy, take the children of its private patients on the NHS. It’s rubbish that there is such paucity of service but that is not the fault of the individual dental practice.

There are nhs dentists out there but you need to ring about, I managed to register us all locally a few months ago whereas the year prior (when we moved here) they weren't accepting new patients.

My private dentist saw DS as an NHS patient because I was paying for Denplan. Pretty standard. Then they turned around and said they weren't seeing children as NHS anymore and I had to pay for him or move dentists. I tried to move to another private dentist with my Denplan where they agreed to see DS as NHS. I couldn't just move though, I had to have a full check up (just weeks after I'd had my normal checkup) and x-rays before they would take me on, and of course I would have to pay for that. I was very lucky to find a dentist that was taking on children as NHS. DS has had to undergo a considerable amount of treatment and I couldn't afford private for him.

This was quite common back in about 2006 when my dentist went private, as long as parents were private patients the children were NHS. Many people who have private dentist now can't access NHS for their children so you are better off than many. Not saying it's right but that's how it is

I've just registered my daughter at a dentist that is mostly private. No need for me to register or pay anything.
Have you checked the NHS website to double check who in your area is accepting? None in my area are accepting adult patients, but quite a few are accepting children (which is how I found the one my daughter is now with).