why are dentists working hours restricted

meercatsunited

a local dentist is no longer taking nhs patients because although people want to sign on with him his local pct will not allow him to work full time rather than part time and are only prepared to pay him the part time salary.

does anyone know why this is when there is a demand for the services.

NewKittenHelp

He gets paid more for private so that's what he'd rather do. Seems obvious unless I'm missing something?

Jet

I think dentists get allocated so many "points" per year and if they reach the target they get paid their full salary, if they go over, they don't get paid any more, so there's no incentive to take on new patients.

Toothsmith

Pretty much what Jet said.

NHS dental contracts are for a set number of what are called Units of Dental Activity, or UDAs.

Different treatment types have different value of points 1 for check-ups, clean ups, x-rays. 3 for fillings (that's a treatment containing one or more fillings, not 3 points per filling) and 12 points for a treatment containing a crown or a denture (Any number of crowns, plus all the fillings needed as well).

A dentist is expected to ration out their UDAs so that they are provided evenly over the year. They cannot blow them all in the first 6 months then do no more NHS work for the rest of the year. But, if the dentist doesn't provide all their UDAs in a year, then next year's contract can be reduced by the Primary Care Trust.

Dentists can bid for more UDA under competative tender, but only if the PCT has them to give out - maybe from a dentist not completing all their UDA that year, or a dentist retiring, or a dentist going private.

But NHS dentistry is now a capped system, and capacity is finite. So there just isn't the money to create any more NHS dentists, or expand the capacity, regardless of demand.

LondonDiva

If your dentist serioursly wants more NH?S patients and can prove demand, he can make a case to the dental contract manager.

What a lot of them do is try to retain a small NHS service, gain NHS support for bills /training / infrastructure and then funnel patients into private with 'The NHS won't pay for xxdxd'.

If your dentist has truly run out of UDAs, has he fulfilled his contract by telling you where on the practice waiting list you are and roughly when you will reach the top of the list? If in doubt, call your local PCT PALS https://www.nhs.uk

brook2jack

LondonDiva wrote: »

If your dentist serioursly wants more NH?S patients and can prove demand, he can make a case to the dental contract manager.

What a lot of them do is try to retain a small NHS service, gain NHS support for bills /training / infrastructure and then funnel patients into private with 'The NHS won't pay for xxdxd'.

If your dentist has truly run out of UDAs, has he fulfilled his contract by telling you where on the practice waiting list you are and roughly when you will reach the to of the list? If in doubt, call your local PCT PALS https://www.nhs.uk

This is utter tripe in most parts of the country.

Pcts have limited budgets and in my part of the world every pct is in the red or close to it. The consequence of this is it is written policy that no more increase in dental contracts will be awarded and in addition when a dentist retires or wants to sell a practice their contract will not be awarded to anyone else. This in an area where less than 50% of the population have seen a dentist regularly and is in a very high needs area.

Moreover there is no money that comes to help with infrastructure , virtually all training has to be paid for and the small amount that helps pay business rates is dependant on what percentage of your income is nhs!!

This is a situation repeated across the country where many practitioners want more udas (bigger dental contracts) and cannot get them or even worse where dentists have been given time limited contracts eg for two years and even though the patients are there and need treating the money either isn't there to continue the contract or it has to go out to tender again resulting in the patients having no where to go in the meantime.

Londondiva please realise that what you think happens in your own small patch is by no means what happens in the rest of the country as often your answers to dental contract questions are either out of date, incorrect or don't apply to other parts of the country. Eg in the three areas close to me waiting lists have been abolished. Patients are told to keep ringing practices until a space is available. There are many areas where there is no obligation to run a waiting list as the likelihood of being seen is either so remote or other practices have capacity.

This is the minutes of a meeting explaining the difficulties of running out of udas in general and orthodontic practice. A situation echoed now in many parts of the country. http://www.hertsdirect.org/mm/md/NHS_Dental_Services_Topic_Group_3/080911__Minutes_11_September_meeting.doc