Row as 15,000 stop seeing dentist (From Bucks Free Press)

Row as 15,000 stop seeing dentist

3:42pm Friday 6th March 2009 in Health By Oliver Evans

THE number of people who went to the dentist in Buckinghamshire has fallen by seven per cent since a controversial new contract was introduced, figures show.

There were 15,000 fewer patients seen in the two-and-half years after the national contract – designed to improve access to dentists – went live.

A councillor today said an increase in the number of NHS dentists going private was hitting patients.

And a practice manager said those who had stuck with contract had found it difficult to manage demand.

Yet an NHS boss told a council watchdog committee that extra work was being bought from dentists to get more patients seen.

Figures show 200,203 patients were seen in the two years from September 2006, six months after the contract went live.

This is compared to 215,032 in the two years to April 2006, when the contract took affect.

It means 39.7 per cent of county patients are now seen compared to 43.2 per cent.

Chalfonts & Seer Green councillor Pam Bacon said today: “I can see the haemorrhaging of dentists to the private sector in the southern part of Bucks.”

Haddenham practice manager Naomi Gray said the contract had made it difficult to manage patients and some had been turned away.

This is because the NHS paid up front for a set number of procedures, or “units of dental activity” each month, she said.

But sometimes the demand was greater than this number, she said, meaning the dentist worked for nothing.

Yet if not enough patients were seen the dentist would have to give the cash back, said Mrs Gray, of The Haddenham Dental Centre.

This made it “difficult to react to patient demand” she told members of Buckinghamshire County Council.

Nationally more than one million fewer people are seeing a dentist.

The British Dental Association has attacked the Government for “placing targets, rather than patients, at its heart”.

And a committee of MPs reported last year that the contract had failed to make a big enough impact on waiting lists.

Councillor Robert Woollard said: “It seems a complete and utter mess. People are searching round to try and find an NHS dentist.”

Yet NHS boss Keith Millward said efforts were being made to buy extra UDAs to meet demand.

An extra 27,500 were bought in October to add to the 534,000 carried out a year, he said. This would add 1,326 new patients.

And about 10,000 more patients will be seen when extra services are bought for the Amersham and Chesham area in 2010, he said.

Some practices’ contracts would be changed to get better value for money, he said.

But staffing shortages at Buckinghamshire NHS Primary Care Trust, which manages dentistry, had affected services, he said.

Mr Millward, PCT dental commissioning manager, said: “The lack of a stable team in the past has perhaps slowed our progress.”

And a consultant advising the PCT blasted the contract as “abysmal” at the today’s meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee for public health services.

Paul Batchelor said the Department of Health “continues to bury its head in the sand”.

A major problem was the fact that, unlike most of the NHS, treatment is not free, which put people off going to the dentist, he said.

Mr Batchelor said: “The single biggest step would be to abolish dental charges but there is not a single Government who is prepared to take that on.”

The committee agreed to give further scrutiny to dental services.