How much more?
Under the headline ‘Patients Pulling out of Rotting NHS Dental System’, the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health claimed that ‘the largest ever patient survey showed the public are exiting a confusing and inadequate service’.
The Commission was set up in January 2003, as an independent, non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department of Health, but is currently living under the threat of closure. Their Dentistry Watch Survey was carried out between July and September, with 5,212 patients and 750 dentists asked for their views on today’s dental service in England. The Commission decided that dentistry ‘required national attention’, after its PPI forums (over four hundred around the country) received many complaints from local communities that huge problems remain’.
The main findings from patients surveyed were that:
- 78% of private patients had left the NHS because their dentist stopped treating NHS patients or they could not find an NHS dentist, with only 15% believing they received better treatment.
- 35% of those not using dental services said it was because there was not an NHS dentist near where they lived.
- 6% had treated themselves, including extracting their own teeth (with a patient from Lancashire removing 14) because they were unable to get professional treatment.
Interestingly, and despite Government claims to the contrary, 50% of all NHS patients didn’t understand dental charges and almost 20% had gone without treatment because of cost. However, 93% of the patients who received NHS treatment were happy with it.
Of the dentists surveyed:
- 45% were not accepting any more NHS patients.
- 58% believed that the quality of care patients received had worsened.
- 85% believed that the new contract had failed in making it easier for patients to get NHS appointments.
- 73% were aware of patients declining treatment because of cost.
Many dentists also reported unhappiness with the new contract, claiming that it offered no incentive to take on new patients, was too target driven and penalised those who needed treatment the most – perhaps best summed up by a dentist from Sheffield who said ‘if one orange cost 10p, then ten oranges cost £1 but if one filling costs £43.60, ten fillings cost £43.60. Rubbish.’
Sharon Grant, Chair of the Commission, said ‘these findings indicate that the NHS dental system is letting many patients down very badly. It appears many are being forced to go private because they don’t want to lose their current trusted and respected dentist or because they just can’t find a local, NHS dentist. Where NHS dental services are available, people are happy with the quality of treatment provided but many find the NHS fee system confusing and expensive, with some patients taking out loans to pay for treatment or, more worrying, taking matters into their own hands.
‘This is an uncomfortable read for all of us and poses serious questions to politicians from patients. There are real policy issues here that have been fudged for too long. Is NHS dentistry just for those who can’t afford anything else – or can it revert to a universal, affordable service to which people have entitlement as citizens and taxpayers? At the moment there is a massive gap between what’s on NHS dentistry tin and what’s in it’.
