NHS dentist only taking on private patients

Lady_K

The local NHS dentist always sent reminders for check ups and reminders so you wouldn't lose your NHS patient place with them but they suddenly stopped doing this. I have lost mine as I've been completely housebound for some time now and being ill didn't think about it until last week when my daughter tried to make an appointment and was told she had lost her place only last month and they were not taking any new NHS patients on but she could join as a private patient and be seen at 9am the next morning.

She went for a check up costing £26 but was told the work would cost her over £500 which she couldn't afford.

While she was in the waiting room she heard the receptionists saying the same thing over and over to people coming in to try and book appointments and phone callers that they could be seen as a private patient straight away but they were not taking any NHS.

This is the Oasis dental group, they were also trying to get existing NHS patients to swap to part private part NHS is this a new thing?

brook2jack

Nhs dentists are only given a fixed contract for a fixed amount each year. They are supposed to stretch out this contract over the year so they do not run out of udas (units of work) before the end of the financial year (march).

To this end many practices have to close their lists to new patients or to people who have not been for a period of time , otherwise they would run out of udas before March and not be able to do any nhs work at all. So if a practice has been very busy at the beginning of the year they may have to slow down nhs work towards the second half of the year.

If a practice does not have any udas left they cannot ask for any more and not only will the health authorities not pay them they will deduct money paid by patients off the contract so they lose money by doing extra nhs work.

This does not affect them being able to offer private treatment which is not affected by nhs contracts. So if a dentist has used up their nhs contract rather than sitting around they can offer private appointments.


The other view is that most of the large corporate dentists are running at a massive loss as it is difficult to make a living on the NHS particularly if you also have shareholders and management to pay.

Toothsmith

This is the second post in 3 days of an Oasis patient being given silly-long appointment waits for NHS whilst private is immediately available!

A new strategy by one of the big PLC corporates who have hoovered up a great deal of the country's NHS dentistry pie?

Lady_K

I have been at the same dentists for all of my life but then they were offered an amount of money they couldn't refuse by the Oasis group so they sold it to them. It wouldn't be so bad if they got in touch by even just a phonecall to say you must come in before a certain date or you will lose your place just to give you the chance and choice. The receptionist said it was done automatically by the NHS not themselves. Whatever way its all computerised and it must flash up on screen beforehand

Having to wait longer for an appointment is not good but completely being taken off without warning is awful as most will not be able to afford to pay the private costs and will have to suffer pain and go without treatment

welshdent

In my practice We do not see new NHS patients or patients that have not attended for more than 4 years. We try and send reminders as a courtesy but ultimately it is the individuals responsibility to attend. We physically can not see everyone. There are 4 full time equivalent dentists in our place. We can only do so much work. its not just a case of seeing people for check ups. We need to find spaces to do the required treatments as well. Myself for example needs a bare minimum 60 minutes, more likely 90 whenever I need to do a root filling. Try findings space for that AND see new patients and lapsed ones. I quite like to go home at the end of the day

In addition our contract is woeful and we have no control over its content or implimentation. We did 100% of our target last year. That means that we are quite squarely at our capacity. We can do no more work. Oh we had at that time SPACE to do more work... but I am not about to work for free especially as I worked out being a dentist, buying equipment, attending courses and other things such as indemnity, registration, professional memberships costs me more than the average wage in the UK last year. Labour removed registration. MOst practices I know operate a notional list to their regular patients but we had the responsibility on that front removed by the government of the day and no one as yet has put it back.

I know the press releases everyone has read would make you immediately assume it is some scam to rip off the general public so we can drive around in brand new bentleys. It isnt. There is a hell of a lot that you do not see because we do our best in spite of it all to provide a service. But we have our hands tied behind our backs most days

welshdent

If you are housebound then you may be better seeing if community will come out to you as we are not able to do home visits now anyway.

Lady_K

Thanks, I didn't know of a community dentist but I will enquire about it now.

I was asking for my daughter too though, do you think if she contacts them in the new year they may take some new NHS patients? What is the best time to try and are they allowed to have an NHS wait list?

You sound like a small surgery and 4 years is generous amount of time to allow patients non attending but as the Oasis group is very big its not likely to be suffering that much. This practise has at least 20 dentists on 2 big floors. Yours sounds similar to what it used to be like before Oasis took over

brook2jack

the dental contract year ends at the end of March, so if they have no capacity now it is unlikely to change until then.

Your daughter would be better off investigating any other NHS dentists that may be accepting patients in the area.

welshdent

Lady_K wrote: »

Thanks, I didn't know of a community dentist but I will enquire about it now.

I was asking for my daughter too though, do you think if she contacts them in the new year they may take some new NHS patients? What is the best time to try and are they allowed to have an NHS wait list?

You sound like a small surgery and 4 years is generous amount of time to allow patients non attending but as the Oasis group is very big its not likely to be suffering that much. This practise has at least 20 dentists on 2 big floors. Yours sounds similar to what it used to be like before Oasis took over

The problem though is not related to how many surgeries or dentists they have but how much the NHS has awarded them in funding. If they have no available funding i.e they do 100% of their contract or very close then they will effectively be treating you for free and thus they will simply close their door and say "no capacity". There is no new money for growth/new patients beyond occasional access contracts or late in the year extra "UDAs" (units of dental activity). You can have 10 surgeries but if you only have enough fundng for 1 dentist the other 9 either dont open or only work privately. In the past it wasnt a problem, we were remunerated for the work done in its entirety but that is not the case now. Cash investment was capped by labour in an effort to restrict spending on dentistry and patient contribution went up significantly.

Floss

I suggest your daughter looks on your local CCG website for a list of local NHS dentists with vacancies. It probably won't be near your home but she should find somewhere.

Toothsmith

Floss wrote: »

I suggest your daughter looks on your local CCG website for a list of local NHS dentists with vacancies. It probably won't be near your home but she should find somewhere.

Hmmm - an up to date and accurate CCG website with dental vacancies?

Do such beasts exist? :rotfl: