Can I change my mind about dental fillings?

brook2jack2

The practice (in England) will have a UDA (units of dental activity) contract ie they will have to do a certain amount of UDAs a year. The payment is divided by 12 and paid each month. If a practice underperforms in any way they have to pay back the UDAs underperformed. Around 80% of all NHS practices underperform each year because the targets are very,very difficult to achieve. 

Contractually a practice has to give 3 months notice they are giving up their NHS contract and will have to repay any payments for UDAS not performed and any key performance indicators not achieved .  Of course if a practice goes into administration then they have to shut immediately with no notice like here https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/health/closure-of-kingston-crescent-dental-and-northern-dental-described-as-absolutely-disgraceful-as-readers-respond-4717926

There are very few private dental jobs you can just walk into and even fewer that are full time. In order to get these jobs you have to take courses (extremely expensive and difficult to afford when working on NHS) , get a portfolio of work to show and ,in many cases , build up a patient list of your own as dentistry is a very personal relationship . Most dentists will start in a part time private job and build up until they have a full time list. 

A cold squat practice (the newly established private practice) will have no patient list , so a dentist will have to build up a reputation first to get a decent patient list . They will probably not make any money for months/a year  until they have a list . 

People are more and more reluctant to work in NHS dentistry for reasons above so NHS jobs are easy to find and dreadful to work in. 

However many dentists will try to at least do some NHS work , even at a loss, because it is a caring profession and as they are at the front line , they are well aware of difficulties people have in affording private care . https://dentistry.co.uk/2024/07/16/current-nhs-dental-contract-cant-go-on-much-longer-says-dentist/

Toothsmith

Wes Streeting met 'Dental Leaders' on Day 1 of the Labour Gov, as it was a Labour pledge to 'solve' the NHS access problem.

Anyone notice anything happening since then??

No - me neither. It's all gone very quiet.