dental treatment reclaiming advice

sunshine124

Hi guys,

my friend gets Jobs seekers allowance and is in desperate need of some dental treatment. In the area where she lives there is no NHS dentist it is all private. She needs to have one of her teeth extracted but it will cost her about £55. The only source of income is JSA so how can she afford the treatment? She has already had a set of x-rays done on her teeth as well as her regular check up, but that cost her about £50 which she had to borrow from her parents. Anyway, my question is this - can she reclaim the money that she has already paid for her treatment? or does she have to carry on and pay the full amount? To me this seems unfair as she is in pain, but she must have the treatment.

Any suggestions would be a great help and appreciated

Savvy_Sue

AFAIK (and you can check this from the posts by Toothsmith on the Health Board) there's no way of reclaiming the costs of private dental treatment. However, if she contacts the local PCT they MAY be able to find her an NHS dentist to do the extraction.

Would she definitely get free treatment on the NHS? If not, I'd stick with her current dentist as long as she's happy with them. NHS costs wouldn't necessarily be much lower than that.

Conor_3

If she needs emergency treatment (wink wink), all NHS dentists offer this without the need to be registered at their practice.

Toothsmith

Conor wrote: »

If she needs emergency treatment (wink wink), all NHS dentists offer this without the need to be registered at their practice.

Since April 2006, nobody is 'registered' with an NHS dentist.

The only patients the dentist has any committment to are the ones currently under treatment.

Anybody else can be seen if the dentist has 'capacity'.

If the dentist hasn't got capacity (usually enough 'funding points' available to treat them) then it doesn't matter if that patient has been a regular at that practice for 40 years, or if it's someone who's never been to any dentist before in their life. You ain't coming in!!

And no - the state will not repay any private dental costs.

If she had to pay NHS charges though, the exam, x-rays and extraction would have cost £43.60, unless the first appointment was classed as an 'emergency' appointment, when that would have been an extra £15.95

sunshine124

hi and thx for the replies, the point I was trying to make was that she is on JSA which i think is about £59 a week, but the dentist says her extraction will cost her about £55, so there goes her income for the week, i mean what is she supposed to live on? Anyway i remember reading somewhere about a HC1 or HC5 form to reclaim health costs or something - does anyone know about this?

dmg24

If she is on income based JSA, she will automatically get free NHS treatment. If she is on contributions based JSA, she will need to apply for free NHS treatment, based on having a low income. This is the HC1 form that you have heard of.

The HC1 form will still not cover her for private treatment. Has she rang the PCT to check if there is anywhere that she can receive NHS treatment in her area?

(AFAIK = as far as I know)

sunshine124

thx dmg24 yes she is on income based JSA and she has told the dentist this, but they keep saying she still has to pay and what is PCT? oh and thx for the definition of AFAIK

dmg24

The PCT is the Primary Care Trust. They will have a PALS service, which is there to answer any queries or complaints that patients in their area have. They should also have someone that deals specifically with dentistry queries.

There is a list of all the PCT's here.

(Page up if your area is before N, the link was when I looked at the one for Nottingham!).

dmg24

Also, is there an NHS Direct Walk In Centre in a nearby town? Some of these have dentistry services.

sunshine124

thx for the info on PCT dmg24, i will look through the page now and will tell my friend, thx again!

Savvy_Sue

sunshine124 wrote: »

thx dmg24 yes she is on income based JSA and she has told the dentist this, but they keep saying she still has to pay and what is PCT? oh and thx for the definition of AFAIK

sorry, I thought most people knew that one!

Anyway, if it's a private dentist then it doesn't matter to them WHAT her income is: that's their charge, that's what they expect to be paid, they have no way of reclaiming it from the NHS. They MIGHT agree to payment by instalments, but TBH if her parents can lend her the money then repaying them is probably a better way to go.