NHS Dentist Charges

AlecEiffel

Hi all,

My mum is an NHS patient at one of the local dental surgeries.

A couple of weeks ago she had a 6 monthly check up due. A couple of days before the appt she broke a tooth and rang up to see if there was a cancellation appointment available instead. There was so she went there and they gave her her check up then and arranged for her to come back for the treatment for her broken tooth. She was charged the £18 checkup fee and was told she would pay the balance for the whole course of treatment when it was completed (ie £31, bringing it up to the band 2 fee of £49).

However her dentist can't complete her treatment until the end of May and was very rude about it when my mum asked if there was no way to fit it in prior.

My mum has since asked if another dentist at the same surgery can fit her in earlier and she was told yes. She has since been told she will need to pay an additional £18 check up fee as she will be seen by a new dentist. Is this taking the mick as surely the records show the details of the last check up and it's the same surgery? When she questioned this they then decided it was because the first appt was an emergency appt. But then why did the original dentist say that the balance due was only £31, not £49?

I know it's "only" £18 but still!

Cheers.

brook2jack

Even though two dentists may work in the same practice they are not financially connected in any way and will work off separate nhs contracts. In effect they rent the rooms and pay expenses to the practice from the practice owner

So if you have a check up with dentist one that work is under one nhs contract and that check up course of treatment has to be closed down and a new course of treatment opened under dentist two's contract.

So you will owe check up fee to dentist one and £49 to dentist two.

welshdent

Just to back up brook thats absolutely correct.

In fairness to the dentist that your mum did not like, they saw her in good faith and did the examination. The UDA allocation can not be split and as such non transferrable. The original dentist would not be paid anything at all if things panned out as your mum was erring towards. Also the new dentist would have to do an examination too. If we are agreeing to accept responsibility for a treatment we MUST carry out a full examination and following someone else's is not acceptable. So the only way your mum can save on the £18 is to have all the treatment with the first dentist.

Dentistry is a lot more complex than most people realise.

Incidentally before I am yelled at about any of the above ... please see your MP. We dont like the system either!!

That being said, the NEW new contract is likely to be even worse. If your mum thought may was too long to wait, in the future it could be months and months ... and not because the dentist is busy ... although they would have to have an oral health assessment before ANYTHING ... they have got this down to 30 minutes in pilots ... No .. it could be months because unless they tick all the boxes off properly the computer will be saying no,.

AlecEiffel

Many thanks to you both for your replies. I'll pass on the information.

She thought that it was the surgery with the contract rather than the individual dentist so that's interesting to hear. When she told me about it I thought about the possibility that the individual dentist may rent the space and pay a fee to the owner but discounted it! So it is a lot more complex as you say! As explained by you both above it makes sense!

Thank you both again for the insight

welshdent

We actually give a percentage of our gross fees to the owner of the practice. That % ranges from roughly 40 - 60% depending on what is agreed. I know of some practices where 70% is taken from the associate.