Dentistry Fiasco Update 2

Mike Denham Burning Our Money

Open your wallet very wide please

We’ve blogged the NHS dentist fiasco many times (eg here). And today we hear that the Department of Health’s latest convoluted attempt to increase availability has flopped.

Their new contract for NHS dentists was supposed to end the piecework "drill and fill" culture, yet at the same time somehow expand supply. In reality it’s made even more dentists jump ship altogether: in the year to end-March, the number of NHS dentists actually fell from 21,111 to 21,038.

Health minister Ann Keen ludicrously claims:

"Putting right nearly two decades of deterioration in NHS coverage is not the work of 12 months. It will take longer to develop services to a position where all primary care trusts are able to meet local requirements fully."

She’s clearly overlooked Tony Blair’s notorious "pledge" nearly a decade ago:

"Everyone within the next two years will be able once again to see an NHS dentist."

NHS dentistry now costs us nearly £2bn pa. Yet patient numbers are lower than ever.

The hopeless Department of Health is incapable of even managing itself (eg see this blog). So why on earth should we believe its claims to manage dentistry?

Mike Denham

Mike is a former Treasury economist who worked extensively on public spending and fiscal analysis during the 1970s and early 1980s. His work included cost benefit appraisal of public projects, analysis of public sector cost inflation and value for money studies.

Follow @the_tpa

Roger Rabbit

Dentistry in the NHS has **never** worked out, and yet still the Lefties out there continue to claim that dentistry **is** and **should be** available on the NHS.
There was also the “shocking” headline that the NHS “rations healthcare”. How utterly disingenuous:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3119342.stm
http://www.dentalholiday.co.uk Daniel Shaw

When treatment abroad can be had through websites like http://www.dentalholiday.co.uk for 70% less than the usual private dental cost in the UK, it’s no wonder hundreds of disgruntled brits are drive in hoards for implants, crowns and veneers – the most common types of major dental work which the NHS does not have covered.
Clinics like them have native english staff directly in the clinic, lots of freebies, a relaxed atmosphere, and highly expert doctors and technology.
It’s no wonder we go abroad when it’s just a 1-2 hours flight away.