DIY Pain in NHS Dental Crisis

by liamssoft | October 15, 2007 at 04:20 am | 493 views | 2 comments

The NHS dental system is letting down hundreds of thousands of patients. Many are forced to go private because they can't find a local NHS dentist. Some are resorting to DIY using pliers and other makeshift apparatus and materials. Before New Labour, NHS dentistry was a universal, affordable, service to which people were entitled as citizens and taxpayers.

The arrangements under the new contract have been criticised by dentists as a crude, target-driven system, which does not encourage them to treat complicated cases or take on new patients.

Of the dentists surveyed, 45 per cent said that they were not accepting any more NHS patients and 58 per cent said that the quality of care patients have received since the introduction of the new dental contracts has got worse.

Nearly three quarters said they were aware of patients declining treatment because of the cost. However, 93 per cent of patients receiving NHS treatment said they were were happy with the treatment provided.

One person questioned in Lancashire spoke of carrying out 14 separate extractions with pliers.

NHS dentistry, another section of Government management shown to be incompetent.

The Dentistry Watch survey of more than 5,000 people, from the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health, found widespread unhappiness among both patients and dentists despite government reforms to increase the availability of NHS dentistry.

Anthony Halperin, chairman of the Patients Association and a dentist himself, said: "It's simply astonishing in this day and age that we have people pulling their own teeth out.

Billions of pounds put into the NHS but very often money just down the pan on systems that just don't work.

A lack of Government funding means dentists are turning patients away, leaving only the wealthy able to afford treatment in many areas.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands are having to go private because their dentist no longer takes NHS cases. Many are also forced to take out loans to pay for treatment.

A total of 78 per cent of patients in private practices said they were there either because their dentist stopped taking NHS patients or that they could not find an NHS clinic.

Hard up Britain cant afford the NHS Dentistry care.

Almost a fifth (19%) of those questioned in the biggest patient survey of its kind revealed that they had missed out on dental work they needed because of the cost.

The research, involving more than 5,000 patients in England, also found that as many as 6% had even resorted to treating themselves because they could not find a dentist.

Many NHS dental patients in England are being forced to pay for private care, go without treatment or even pull out their own teeth, a survey suggests.