NHS dentists - what is with the wait times?
Posted by Slojo1993@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 26 comments
[removed]
Posted by Slojo1993@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 26 comments
[removed]
Capt_Capital@reddit
dentist here
the way NHS dentistry works is practices are allocated a certain number of points each year (called UDAs or units of dental activity). every treatment has its points value (fillings, root canals, crowns, bridges, dentures, etc.) and the practice only get funding up to that points allocation so they can't go beyond that regardless of the demand.
so you'll find if the practice hits their points allocation for that month you won't get an appointment till the following month since there's no more money to pay for NHS treatments. this causes an inevitable backlog and you end up having to wait months to get an NHS appointment.
people think its dentists being greedy but its simply the government severely underfunding NHS dentistry.
LS8123@reddit
I’ve had 4 appointments cancelled for me and my daughter by my NHS dentist since January, looking back all were scheduled for the 2nd half of the month. Would you hypothetically suggest we aim to book for earlier in the month in order to increase our chances of actually being seen?
Slojo1993@reddit (OP)
!Answer
This makes sense, it’s such a shame isn’t it!
Skylon77@reddit
You can't really run a business properly on the terms and conditions set by the NHS. I'm honestly shocked that there are any dentists willing to do any NHS work at all. It's literally costing them money, which is no way to run a business.
SteakSandwichSideEye@reddit
Sorry to butt in, but what is the NHS portal you registered with. My old surgery dumped all of its NHS patients years ago, so I've been looking for an NHS dentist ever since.
Slojo1993@reddit (OP)
I live in wales now, so I used the dental access portal which is basically a waitlist and they’ll allocate you a dentist
SteakSandwichSideEye@reddit
And thanks, btw
SteakSandwichSideEye@reddit
Ahhh shame England can't sort themselves out
ukbot-nicolabot@reddit
OP marked this as the best answer, given by /u/Capt_Capital.
^(What is this?)
C0nnectionTerminat3d@reddit
nhs dentists are critically underfunded, you’re lucky to even be registered with one at all.
Glad-Pomegranate6283@reddit
100% agree. I’m eligible for free nhs treatment, there aren’t any nhs dentists near me so I pay for private treatment even though under the nhs I’d be exempt
Available_Hornet_715@reddit
Yes I’m pregnant and eligible for free nhs treatment and had to go private.
lovesorangesoda636@reddit
Chronic underfunding and oversubscription.
You would think... but the NHS contract in England caps how much NHS treatment a dentist can do. By limiting NHS appointment to certain days etc, it helps manage the appointment calendar while probably saving the "better" appointment slots for private patients.
icabod88@reddit
I theoretically have an NHS dentist. However I gave up and went private. I can get a private appointment in 3 days for a check-up
My NHS experience was to phone up for an appointment for a check-up, get an appointment 3 months away, it gets cancelled a week before, rinse wash repeat.
nomarmite@reddit
Because the system is crazy, and it's the NHS's fault not the dentist's.
Under each dentist's contract with the NHS, the dentist agrees to provide a set number of 'units of dental activity' each year, with each type of treatment accounting for a preset number of units. If the dentist provides more than 102% of the agreed units, they are paid nothing for the excess work done. If they provide less than 96%, the NHS can recover any or all of the money due for the work actually done - so in theory the dentist could fulfil 95% of the contract and be paid nothing.
Source, in case this sounds too bizarre to be true: https://faq.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/knowledgebase/article/KA-01672/en-us
This encourages dentists to micromanage their NHS hours so that they don't end up working for nothing. It is easier to do this if they have some flexibility in their schedule. Their financial year ends in March, so they don't want too many appointments at the start of the financial year, April, because it may mean they use up their units before the year end and end up working for free next March. My guess in your case is that some emergency or new patient used up a lot of their units in April, so they are pushing back non-emergency treatments.
TheLightStalker@reddit
What's actually going on is dentists are allocated essentially points to spend and they run out at the end of the tax year. They've likely ran out and have bumped you into "next years" allocation.
If we pretend they're given say 3,700 points. They actually have to allocate every point otherwise they loose their NHS contract. On the flip side they are only paid for 3,700 points which required a lot of guesswork. As a single filling may be 18 points for example. Everything they allocate over 3,700 makes them a loss.
Many dentists I know of use this safety mechanism. First come first served. Use points as quickly as possible. Make sure you're exactly within your allocation +10% and then deny all further work. I've know practices to use up their allocation 6 months early.
Best you can do is interact with them however you can and always have an appointment in May.
Apsalar28@reddit
I'm lucky enough to still have an NHS dentist. They book my next checkup before I leave the surgery after the previous one and waiting times for treatment appointments are a couple of weeks
For new patients the wait was 4 years last time I asked, but they do have a handful of emergency appointments for people sent to them via 111 kept open every day.
ChelseaMourning@reddit
NHS dentists often work part NHS, part private. Guess which gets priority. I had to cancel a checkup in March and it’s been rescheduled for May. Apparently my NHS dentist only takes NHS appointments on certain days.
MoonShineWashingLine@reddit
The only NHS dentists around here are part of the MyDentist chain, who are shockingly bad. I tried one and their xray machine wasn't even working. They also gave me the shittest bite guard I've ever received. Had to go private in the end.
Next-Suit-9579@reddit
Be thankful you have one, my NHS dentist of 5 years struck off ALL of their NHS patients, including the kids. Now my whole family is without a dentist. To have a kid seen regularly at least one parent has to pay a monthly adult fee of £18 a month. That only covers a check up and clean twice a year, no other treatment is covered.
telamalin@reddit
I had a different issue with free NHS care during pregnancy. I got an appointment just fine, but then the dentist was mad at me for "not booking a long enough appointment" - um, that's the receptionist's fault? How the hell am I supposed to know how long the appointment is supposed to be?
After that I was fed up and just went private and have been very happy with that. A perk is that if you have a parent in the practice they will see your kids as NHS patients so I get better care for them than I did at the other dentist.
samiam221b@reddit
So a big part of the problem is that funding for NHS patients is crap in comparison to the business costs. The NHS system for dentistry is shockingly run. If a patient doesn’t turn up, the dentist doesn’t get paid.
If a patient needs 5 appointments for treatment, the dentist doesn’t get paid until the treatment course is finished. If the patient decides not to show up for appointment 5? A million hoops for the dentist to jump through to get paid for work they have done.
If the dentist has specific times when they see NHS appointments, this is either a rule from corporate (so many dentists are run by chains now - even if you don’t think so!) or a rule they have to help them run the NHS and private sides of their business.
It sucks! The system itself is a big part of the problem - years of underfunding from (and of) the NHS screwing us all over. I hope you get it sorted.
(Source: both my sisters have qualified as dentists within the past few years)
Bumpyslide@reddit
The gov current and previous do not pay enough for everyone to see an nhs dentist. These wait times are the repercussions
WGSMA@reddit
NHS Dentists make a fraction of private dentists, because the Gov doesn’t pay them enough
They simply don’t want to treat you because in many cases they lose money on a patient.
skiingpuma@reddit
I called maybe 5 dentists in my area saying I had a maternity exemption certificate, and I got in pretty easily because of that, no real wait. My husband? Hasn’t found one in years after a move and gave up and now goes private.
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