NHS dentist - no appointments?

pboae

At the beginning of this year a piece broke off one of OH's teeth, he made an appointment with the dentist, and the first one he could get was nearly 2 months later. So he took that, had a check up and they said come back for the filling.

So he made another appointment, again a 2 month wait, went back for the filling, had part of the work done and was told he'd need a 2nd appointment to finish it off. Luckily it was a 'dead' tooth that had previously had a root canal so he wasn't in pain while all this was going on.

So he makes the 2nd appointment, you guessed it, 2 months wait, so it was for the end of June. Due to circumstances beyond his control he now has another appointment on that date, something which cannot be rescheduled. He tried to reschedule his dental appointment and they say they have nothing available before August. But we are going abroad for 6 months at the end of July.

Obviously we don't want to go away with the work half finished. So I suppose he will have to find a private dentist to do it, but I don't know if they will be keen on finishing off something someone else has started.

It doesn't seem right that he has to wait so long for appointments, it's been almost 6 months since the tooth broke (and that's before he had to cancel the appointment.) I've never had to wait more than a couple of weeks to see my dentist, but unfortunately they aren't taking on new patients any more. His dentist say he should be grateful to have an NHS dentist at all (which is sadly probably true).

They obviously have more patients than they can see, do surgeries get paid per patient-on-the-books, or only when patients are actually seen?

Are there any NHS guidelines or similar on how long you should wait to get treatment, or anything else that might give him some leverage to get this seen to before we go?


(BTW he's not being fussy about appointment times, he's always taken the first one available, no matter what day or time it was).

NJW69

Contact your PCT.

They may be able to intervene or provide details of an emergency service.

If you have a dental hospital nearby they may see you there.

alison999

Dentists only get paid for what they DO. Can he ask them to ring him if anyone cancels? If theres no appointments then theres no appointments unfortunately there is only so much time in a day.

You could ring the PCT and see what advice they could offer you as it might vary from area to area.

Hope you get it sorted!

brook2jack

Unfortunately when I was a nhs dentist we too had this sort of wait for appointments. In order to fulfil contract obligations you have to see so many people it means you get booked up far in advance.

The note of caution I would sound is if you husbands tooth is rootfilled then it may have been prepared for a crown which is why it needs a second appointment. If he goes elsewhere for treatment when the crown preperation has already been done he will still have to pay the band three charge or crown charge (depending on where you live) to his original dentist. Your best bet is to ring up daily for cancellations .

pboae

Thanks for the suggestions. It's a cancellation he's trying to get, they save them for emergency patients who are in pain, and won't let him book one. So he's trying to find a way to persuade them to let him take a cancellation appointment. Obviously they can't create an appointment when there is no space, but there will be cancellations and appointments before we go, they just won't let him have one. :-\

He hasn't contacted the PCT yet, but I think that will be the next step. The dental hospital won't see him as he is already under the care of a dentist and it's not emergency work.

alison999

Could he not re arrange the other appointment? I think if the dentist had cancelled your husband you may have a argument but b/c your husband cancelled it could go against you.

Im not taking sides but Im just trying to see it from a different angle here

I dont understand why they wont offer to ring him if anyone cancels, they should have other space for emergencies.. what would they do if no one cancelled?

pboae

The other appointment definitely can't be rearranged. It's just sod's law that it's on the same day. Besides, they have cancelled his dentist appointment already (before he even asked, he only rang to see about rearranging it!, but that's another whinge), and he won't get it back now.

If you have an emergency and there are no appointments you have to go to the dental hospital instead.

Soubrette

alison999 wrote: »

I dont understand why they wont offer to ring him if anyone cancels, they should have other space for emergencies.. what would they do if no one cancelled?

If they are that booked up they will have loads of people phoning for cancellations and it probably isn't feasible to keep a list of anyone except emergencies.

Pboae has already said that this isn't classed as an emergency.

I'm afraid the only advice I can offer is to ask if his dental practice sees private patients, if so would he be prepared to pay privately for the end of his treatment? It's a sad fact that often even fully booked dentists can squeeze in a full paying customer

Sou

welshdent

Soubrette wrote: »

If they are that booked up they will have loads of people phoning for cancellations and it probably isn't feasible to keep a list of anyone except emergencies.

Pboae has already said that this isn't classed as an emergency.

I'm afraid the only advice I can offer is to ask if his dental practice sees private patients, if so would he be prepared to pay privately for the end of his treatment? It's a sad fact that often even fully booked dentists can squeeze in a full paying customer

Sou

I would disagree with the last statement. It sounds unlikely they keep spaces for private patients so I they are anything like me, no
space means just that. No space. They are but one person and as such no amount of financial offers will change that short of them agreeing to see them out of hours. Personally I wouldn't in normal circumstances but if we had cancelled some and there were pressing matters we may make a few allowances. I don't know what help the pct would be short of advising a different practice but that would mean paying again. Perhaps the reason they don't give cancellations out is because they are that busy they use cancellations to catch up during the day? Pct's do not have powers to interfere with day to day practice runnings they just comission a contract

Soubrette

welshdent wrote: »

I would disagree with the last statement. It sounds unlikely they keep spaces for private patients so I they are anything like me, no
space means just that. No space. They are but one person and as such no amount of financial offers will change that short of them agreeing to see them out of hours. Personally I wouldn't in normal circumstances but if we had cancelled some and there were pressing matters we may make a few allowances. I don't know what help the pct would be short of advising a different practice but that would mean paying again. Perhaps the reason they don't give cancellations out is because they are that busy they use cancellations to catch up during the day? Pct's do not have powers to interfere with day to day practice runnings they just comission a contract

Alas I can only give my own dental practice's procedures - if you are a private patient you are usually seen within a week - if you are an NHS patient then it is more like 6 weeks. Same dentist is available to both sets of patients although it has been mooted that he will be closing his books to the NHS patients soon (but that's just rumours from other patients).

Sou

welshdent

My place makes no distinction and I have only NHS patients anyway offering private treatment options - but even that wont get you seen sooner LOL. BUT .... I am a fussy !!!!!! that refuses to allow my book to get overly clogged up and refuse to take on more than I can see.