Can dentist kick me off NHS list without warning?

NewbieNorman

Hi there, When I tried to make a check up appointment at my dentist recently, the surgery informed me that it had been too long since my last appointment and they had removed me from their NHS list. I know this is becoming increasingly common and do admit it was longer than 2 years since I've seen the dentist (I've always had good teeth and not needed regular appointments and feel out of sync with it - I realise that's not much of an excuse!). Anyway, my question is, can they do it without notice? I'm tempted to try to appeal it based on the fact I was at no point told that they ran a "use it or lose it" policy. A friend who goes to the same dental surgery recently got a text message advising them that they are due a dental appointment and to contact the surgery within 28 days or they can no longer be seen under the NHS. I've never had anything like that.

Thrugelmir

NewbieNorman said:

do admit it was longer than 2 years since I've seen the dentist 

The dentist probably has a list of people waiting for NHS treatment. Seems fair and reasonable to remove people who aren't using the service. 

Undervalued

NewbieNorman said:

Hi there, When I tried to make a check up appointment at my dentist recently, the surgery informed me that it had been too long since my last appointment and they had removed me from their NHS list. I know this is becoming increasingly common and do admit it was longer than 2 years since I've seen the dentist (I've always had good teeth and not needed regular appointments and feel out of sync with it - I realise that's not much of an excuse!). Anyway, my question is, can they do it without notice? I'm tempted to try to appeal it based on the fact I was at no point told that they ran a "use it or lose it" policy. A friend who goes to the same dental surgery recently got a text message advising them that they are due a dental appointment and to contact the surgery within 28 days or they can no longer be seen under the NHS. I've never had anything like that.

In England (Scotland and maybe Wales and N Ireland are different) there is no NHS list as such. It changed quite a few years back.

In England you can go to any NHS dentist who has space to see you and once you start a "course of treatment" they must finish it. After that they are not obliged to see you again.

Some choose to operate as if they had a "list" and give priority or even only see regular patients. They are free to work that way if they wish. So they can kick anybody off the "list" if they wish, whenever they please, as long as they are not part way through a course of treatment.

Murphybear

We couldn’t get hold of our dentist for over 2 years during the Covid pandemic, the phone message said “we are only treating emergencies at the moment”.  You couldn’t leave a message and there was no way of contacting them.  

This dentist is 40 miles away, they let us stay on when we moved 4 years ago,  we have been trying to find an NHS dentist, totally impossible and we can’t afford even a small % of private charges.  

They havent told us  we’ve been removed from their list