Dentists take on less NHS patients as Brits struggle to get appointments

A survey of of 2,200 dentists showed 75% say they are now likely to reduce, or further reduce, their NHS commitment in the next 12 months. Some 45% say they are likely to go fully private

Dentists are withdrawing from seeing NHS patients and going private as millions of Brits are going without getting care for their teeth.

British Dental Association polling shows 45% of dentists report they have reduced their NHS patient commitment since the pandemic by an average of over a quarter.

The survey of 2,200 dentists showed 75% say they are now likely to reduce, or further reduce, their NHS commitment in the next 12 months.

Some 45% say they are likely to go fully private amid a dispute over the NHS contract which dentists say effectively caps the number of NHS patients they can take on.

It comes after the Mirror revealed almost two million Brits eligible for free NHS dentistry have been pushed out of receiving care by cruel Tory benefit changes.

Shawn Charlwood, BDA chair of the dental practice committee, said: “Overstretched and underfunded, thousands of dentists have already left the NHS, but many more have begun severing their ties.

“This is how NHS dentistry will die, a lingering decline that unchecked will leave millions of patients with no options.

“This Government has ensured many dentists cannot see a future in this service. Without urgent reform and adequate funding there is little hope we can halt this exodus.”

The Government has been steadily increasing the proportion of NHS dentistry that is paid for from patient fees over that which is paid for out of general taxation.

The BDA says the NHS dental contract, imposed in 2006, puts Government targets ahead of patient need, effectively setting a limit on the numbers of NHS treatments a dentist can do in a year.

It was dubbed ‘unfit for purpose’ by the Health Select Committee fourteen years ago and the system funds care for little over half the population.

The BDA says it sets perverse incentives to dentists, rewarding them the same for doing one filling as ten.

The BDA will give evidence on the issue before the Health Select Committee today.

It comes as the rollout of Universal Credit has coincided with numbers of adults receiving free NHS care dropping by a fifth between 2015/16 and 2019/20 – or by 1.7 million.

The number paying for NHS dentistry only went up by 40,000 in the same period so the British Dental Association warns many are now going untreated, creating an oral health timebomb.

It says benefit changes mean many no longer qualify for free dentistry due to stricter thresholds while many others are unaware that they do.

Dentist Sarah Canavan has worked in the NHS in Northants for 27 years but will move to delivering predominantly private care from April 1.

She said: “I thought I was going to be an NHS dentist till the day I retired. But it’s a broken system. For my own physical and mental wellbeing I had to make the break.

“So many of my colleagues are in the same boat. The service has been cut to the bone, and tick boxes and the targets still come before patient care.

“It’s heart-breaking trying to help patients who require the time the system just wasn’t designed for.

“I’ve retained just enough NHS work to ensure I can see the patients that have been with me for years. I didn’t want them to feel I was abandoning them.

“But Government doesn’t seem to get you can’t have NHS dentistry without NHS dentists. This ship is sinking, and I doubt ministers are willing to do more than rearrange the deckchairs.”