NHS 'broken down', say dentists as they opt for private work
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The crisis in NHS dentistry deepened yesterday as figures showed that almost half of the new dentists registered in Britain last year were from overseas.
After hundreds of people queued from before dawn to register at an NHS dental surgery in Scarborough, opened by a Dutch dentist on Tuesday, ministers admitted there were too few dentists to meet demand.
Rosie Winterton, a Health minister, said: "Even though we are training more dentists there is still a shortage. That is why we are investing £90m extra this year and we are recruiting dentists from abroad to tackle the shortage." Figures from the General Dental Council show that 726 dentists trained in the UK were registered last year compared with 339 from overseas.
In Scarborough, almost 1,000 patients registered with the new dentist in the first 24 hours, some travelling from as far afield as York. John Renshaw, chairman of the British Dental Association (BDA) who has a practice in Scarborough, said: "It makes us look like a Third World town. We have not been queuing down the street since before the Second World War." He added: "What's going on in Scarborough is a classic example of the NHS dentist system breaking down completely."
A BDA spokeswoman said the UK's 13 dental schools were harder to get into than medical schools. "The Government makes a big thing of how many doctors they are training but they never mention dentists. We are calling for a 25 per cent increase in undergraduate places."
The Department of Health said the shortage was exacerbated by the drift of dentists to the private sector. Almost all the 11,000 dental practices in the UK do private and NHS work - only 500 are exclusively private according to the BDA. But many dentists provide only a limited range of treatments on the NHS, which is in breach of their terms of service.
Private dental treatment rose by 60 per cent between 1997 and 2001. An Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigation last year estimated 10 million adults received at least some private treatment, with costs ranging from £9.50 to £40 for an examination. The OFT concluded that some patients were paying inflated charges unjustifiably.
The BDA denied that dentists were exploiting the shortage by overcharging patients. "This is not about greedy dentists wanting to make a fast buck. We did a survey for the OFT of why dentists were doing more private work and the overwhelming answer was because they wanted more time with their patients."
From April 2005, the £1.2bn budget for NHS dentistry will be transferred to local primary care trusts. A health department spokesman said: 'That will provide greater flexibility and allow local health services to respond to local needs."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments