NHS Dentistry Petition

kenshaz

KDH wrote:

And your job/contribution to society is?

What is your employment and contribution to society?

KDH_2

NHS dentist ! (-but then I wouldn't expect you to believe me)

Toothsmith

Have you read any of the links yet Kenshaz?

Please explain how an NHS dentist is supposed to provide NHS dentistry when the money has run out.

Never mind all us private dentists coming back to it - where's the money going to come from to pay for that then?

I have a foreign staffed new dental practice within 2 miles of my practice front door accepting - and even advertising (!) for NHS patients. I have had more patients from them than they have had from me.

Why? because I provide decent dentistry. They are perfectly good, well trained dentists - this is not a xenophobic thing - it's just they are in a bad system that does not allow them to do the best for their patients. Two of them - to my certain knowledge have gone back to Greece, and possibly more have departed too, as I rarely hear the same name twice from the people I get in from there.

Oh - I showed the bit about my 'wealth' to Mrs Toothsmith. How we laughed!!!!

Toothsmith

cordial wrote:

It's no good Ken.

You're preaching to the unconvertible...

Hello Cordial - medication worn off again?

kenshaz

KDH wrote:

NHS dentist ! (-but then I wouldn't expect you to believe me)

If you are then I salute you.

KDH_2

kenshaz wrote:

If you are then I salute you.

Well ........tis true

Up until a year ago I was over 90% NHS...... now down to 30%.
The changes brought in by the government during April 06 gave me sleepless nights, lots of changes and have quite bizarrely have hit Labour voters smack on the nose.
I consider many of these to be hard working families just above the benefits line.......now being hit with higher costs and,dentists in many cases, running out of funding.

The other side of the coin in all this are those who are BEHIND on their targets because these were calculated using a completely awful system. They face funding CUTS in April and May

Toothsmith

kenshaz wrote:

Royal Air Force.Then employed by the government for thirty two years.

Anything to do with the miner's strike by any chance??

Toothsmith

cordial wrote:

No, it's called 'producer-dictated pricing', the precise antithesis of a free market.

But you are assuming that all the producers in our case are somehow part of the same business.

We are not.

We have Corporates in the NHS (Intergrated Dental Holdings, Oasis, and other smaller ones) Corporates in the private sector (Vision Express who bought out Boots' dental operation) and the vast majority of ordinary high street dentists who vary from 100% NHS to 100% private with every shade in between.

In the private sector, there is not 1 price list. The prices depend on the market forces within each area.

There is as much price and quality variation within the dental market as there is in the resturant market.

Some just want a cup of tea and a bacon butty from a caravan in a lay-by, others want a dining 'experience'. They choose the quality they want, and go for it.

The problem with the dental market is that people have been told they can have 'La Maison Bleu' for the price of 'Greasy Joe's' and the wheels are now falling off that lie.

Dentists are deciding whether they want to be Joe, Gordon Ramsey, or the owner of that nice little bistro on the high street.

The vast majority of us are the nice little bistro on the high street. The vast majority of people realise that, and that is why we are all still here and doing OK. True, there are a few (But not that many) who can't afford what's on the menu. And for them, politicians really need to provide a workable system.

And then there are the Kenshazs & Cordials who haven't got a clue what it's all really about anyway, as a lifetime of TV dinners have adled their brains so much, that they no longer work properly!

kenshaz

Toothsmith wrote:

Anything to do with the miner's strike by any chance??

kenshaz

KDH wrote:

Well ........tis true

Up until a year ago I was over 90% NHS...... now down to 30%.
The changes brought in by the government during April 06 gave me sleepless nights, lots of changes and have quite bizarrely have hit Labour voters smack on the nose.
I consider many of these to be hard working families just above the benefits line.......now being hit with higher costs and,dentists in many cases, running out of funding.

The other side of the coin in all this are those who are BEHIND on their targets because these were calculated using a completely awful system. They face funding CUTS in April and May

But at least you have maintained a core NHS ,and for that you have my respect.I am not a fan of targets ,and this government is target obsessed.
But I still believe that the fundamental problem lies with not you who has maintained NHS clients ,but those who has moved totally to the private sector.