I wanna find a new NHS dentist

rach1973

I think it is shocking that in this day and age that we can't get NHS treatment with a Dentist.
I have managed to register my eldest (nearly 2) with a dentist near by (as the other one is 10 miles away and NOT pushchair friendly :mad: :mad: :mad: )
Luckily they will take my youngest on when he turns 2 (he is 6 mths) but for myself I have no chance.
I was fortunate enough to recieve Free dental treatment as I was in the Navy for 8 years - but now I have left to be a SAHM I receive none.

What is the world coming to????????????

Willowrose_2

Good luck to all out there seeking nhs dentists!!! It is deserved by all working people but I fear will be received by few. I dont know the answer but can only strive to look after my own(i.e those already registered with me). This has been a most informative post for all concerned. I only wish that the DoH has read it but that is unlikely!

DownintheMouth

3.4% rise is only a % of the already greatly inadequate NHS Practice funding for high-cost premises, staff, equipment, materials, sterilisation and even more disposables etc.

My costs have risen by 20% this year, so to stay NHS will cost (lose us) 16.6% of total turnover, again. Yes I know that Dentists aren't felt sorry for, but this represents no rise for me and in fact cuts in the service - rush NHS people in and out even faster than already done perhaps? No thankyou!

If that wasn't bad enough, I heard a rumour that the new NHS patient charges (already decided) will now be delayed going public until AFTER the election (?May), because it will cause bad press, as the average patient will be charged much more than at present, perhaps very close to private Dental fees now!

In short, I would have to collect from the average patient MORE money from NHS patient charges to give to Government than I would be actually paid to do their work - no wonder they want that to be quiet until after the election!

Without doubt, many Dental colleagues who were waiting and hoping, will now have to accelerate to total Privatisation (including children) of Practices ASAP, if they wish to have a long-term future, providing properly funded Family Dental care.

I don't think Private patients will be happy to subsidise exempt NHS patients from their Private funding, will they?

Now I understand why Opticians and Chiropodists are 90% Private, I guess the real plans are to do this to Dentistry too, but subversively by a thousand cuts ?

Significant numbers of Family Dentists should not feel forced to leave the NHS like this - it's disgraceful, but what else can one do, apart get burnout or become another dental suicide statistic !!!

3.4% in the current NHS Dental Crisis is an insult, frankly. Maybe Government thinks they can import foreign Dentists from poland and india quicker than UK Dentists will leave the NHS?

This latest total NHS funding increase of a meagre 3.4% is about to turn the NHS exodus into a torrent, I suspect. Practice overheads needed about 50% improvement, before considering wages at all. This 3.4% is unbelieveable but to the average observer they probably think it's an actual wage rise and government spin will try to create that impression - until after the Elections anyway!

Yours DownintheMouth.

Willowrose_2

3.5% I am stunned where did you hear that I was under the impression we had been given 2% an even more insulting offer considering how costs are rising!

DownintheMouth

I heard it from the Doctors and Dentists review body report, a government quango who for years have overseen NHS Dental underfunding reduce quality patient NHS dental services further and further.

Mind you, even they expressed reservations, but their hands are tied by very tight government directives and restrictions too, so not independent really.

Unfortunately I suspect it's too late now, the irreversible damage has been done by this final cut to UK NHS dental needs.

Dentistry is about to join Opticians and Chiropody as a largely Private service.

I wonder which part of the body will be forced to leave the NHS next?

DownintheMouth

DownintheMouth

Just a few more observations;

The papers were full of stories of Dental ques, apparently the latest one in Lincolnshire was over a MILE long to register with an NHS Dentist - that should go in the Guiness Book of records! But I wouldn't want to be that Dentist trying to cope with such a heavy workload, or frankly be one of the patients being processed through such a busy clinic either !

Secondly, Blair was interviewed on Sky News and had to deal with a poor old lady who was forced to extract her own tooth with pliers - She said "...three foreign dentists brought in to work in her home town of Scarborough had all been sacked, proved unqualified or proved unsatisfactory".

Mr. Blair admitted that there were bigger problems than they had anticipated and agreed it was not solved !
However, he still blamed Dentists as " We cannot force them to work in the NHS"!

Presumably though it's OK to force Dentists away from the NHS into the Private sector by providing chronic NHS Dental underfunding, mis-management and poor working conditions too !
Patients AND Dentists deserve better - Spin doesn't treat Dental problems !!!

Will this go down in history as some sort of (broken) record too ?

DownintheMouth.

Toothsmith

EBay came up in the Tooth Whitening thread.

Today I noticed this on the site.

I day left. Be quick!!! :rotfl:


P.S It's not with me!!!!

DownintheMouth

Dear All,

Just to let you know there will be a "fire-sale" event where like fuel shortages recently, Dentists will feel forced to leave the NHS on 1st April 2006 by a new contract that is unbelievably bad !!!

Basically it seems even regular NHS patients are to be put on much longer waiting lists to be seen, to make room for those who couldn't be bothered to register in the past or follow advice to see a Dentist regularly.

This is how Government wants to solve it's Access targets problem, by putting those who tried their best, at the end of their Dentist's que .

Also the new NHS charges are more close to Private charges now for those that pay (69% of patients). More NHS patients will pay more NHS fees, but get a much worse service even than now.

It's a lose-lose situation that Government is hoping to partially prop-up with foreign personnel and telling people to stay away much longer from their Dentist, until they get pain. Isn't that how so many people ended up with toothache, abcesses and bad breath already?

No Dentists won't get those extra NHS fees either, like VAT it goes straight into government's pockets, even though it's supposed to be NHS and free.

Those Dentists that clung onto the spin that Govrnment were going to fix NHS Dentistry, must feel very betrayed, yet again. They will not stand around and watch all their training about prevention and personal patient care be sacrificed just because Government doesn't like Dentists or their regular patients.

No doubt Government and some who believe the positive spin that inevitably will be produced, will want to say it's all Dentists fault. We are the easy fall guys and girls for them to target and shift blame away from the real source .

Next it will be GP's going Private because their paperwork and targets also are not patient-centred and 20% all at once are due to retire in 2 years time.

Just going now to prepare my lifeboat to leave NHS "titanic" Dentistry before the supposed unsinkable thing is allowed to reach it's lowest depths.

No-one, especially regular patients, are likely to be well served by trying to cling onto it now in this state of deterioration.

Sad but true,

DownintheMouth

jinxsi

For anyone who is intersted in the reasons dentists are falling over themselves to get out of the NHS, the British Dental Association has just published it response to the governments proposals for a new dental contract in April 2006. Most of us believe this new contract will be the end of NHS dentistry as we know it and the start of something much worse - and not just for us.

BDA1
BDA2

I have also created a page to keep up to date with whats happening, ** Personal link removed - Edited by Abuse Controller ** its links and personal opinion, click on <nHS dentistry - the new 2006 contract>

Regards
Simon

kevinbev

Quite a bit in todays papers on NHS dentists (or the lack of). People queing most of the night in order to get registered as a NHS patient. Annoys me the fact that we pay extortionate taxes to fund the NHS and we get very little in return. Have been looking at various ways to pay for my families dental needs and not sure what the best way is to go about it yet. I`ve been told about Denplan but there website does not appear to give any costs, then there is healthcare plans like Sovereign Health Care where you claim back some of the costs. Nice to know on that on the Sovereign web site that the payments include "insurance premium tax". You would think that for health care plans the government would scrap this tax rather than squeeze every penny out of everyone.