Dentist and debt collectors

[Ignorethedog]

Hello all,

in October 2025 I went to the dentist (nhs) for a routine check up. The dentist told me I needed a tooth removing but that I’d need to be referred to have it removed (just a molar, not cracked or broken).

Money is super tight as it is for everyone and I could only pay for my check up appointment that day but they said I owed another £50 on top of the check up appointment cost for the referral. A couple of months have gone by and I haven’t heard from the referral so kind of forgot about it all until I received a letter today stating that if I don’t pay the £50 within the next 7 days they are going to pass it on to a debt collector and possibly take me to court.

I don’t have a spare £50 to pay for it, it’s January and I am skint. Our money is budgeted each month so that we have enough for everything we need with barely anything left over for anything extra.

I’ve emailed the dentist this morning in the hope they will see it Monday asking for the referral to be cancelled as I don’t know when I will have the money but does anybody know where I stand with this?

thank you

I’m not too savvy around legal matters but surely you could offer monthly repayments?

Why does a referral cost £50. Is this to cover the admin involved?

Is this a private practice referring you to another private practice or is it an NHS referral to a private practice or to an NHS hospital or what?

From what I understand they were charging me for band 2 for the referral. I only had enough for band 1 (the check up) so only paid that and they are saying I now need to pay the remainder.

it’s a private practice that takes on NHS patients they were referring me to another private practice that takes NHS patients.

I’ve not heard from the referral at all which I didn’t expect to as they said it could take up to a year.

You are liable to pay band 2 to the original practice if you are referred to a tier two referral practice, you do not have to pay again at the practice you are referred to . That is the rules and it is out of the practices control.

The referral has already been done , the forms have been sent off and the amount you should have paid has been deducted off the practices income from the NHS.

You had a bill and knew you owed money . Contact the practice now to arrange paying off in instalments.

The tooth needs to come out and when your referral comes through they will , most likely , refuse to see you until the debt is paid .

Money is tight for everyone , including the small amount of people still working in NHS dentistry who are not paid a wage but paid piecemeal from the work they do . If patients don’t pay the business and staff go bust .

For future , if you are on a low income , see if you are entitled to help with dental costs https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/who-can-get-free-nhs-dental-treatment/