Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

NHS DENTISTRY

It began as a dribble, then a trickle and has become a steady stream. I refer to the number of you who have contacted me about the lack of NHS dentists in this area, getting fewer, it seems, by the week.

I have raised it with ministers and with the Strategic Health Authority for Devon and Cornwall that has the oversight of all these matters.

As I opened Saturday’s post I received the definitive answer: there are now no dental practices in the Plymouth area taking on new adults for NHS treatment. This problem has been compounded by at least two local practices in these parts in the past few months closing the door to NHS patients and servicing fee-paying patients only. Naturally they make their insurance schemes available, where we all pay so much per month depending on the health of our gnashers!

There is a unit at Greenbank where patients who are in pain and are not registered with a dentist elsewhere can go for emergency treatment, and some practices (a tiny few) are still taking children on the NHS. In the summer of 2005, the government is changing the contractual arrangements with dentists that (we are told) will increase the supply of NHS dentistry. But here and now, and outside of this limited provision, the picture is bleak.

What are we to make of all this? Is this just part of the inevitable change that is exploding all around us and we simply have to grin and bear it? After all, some will argue, even NHS dentists have been charging for parts of their work – especially the materials used – for years, so paying a private dentist for work to be done is not much different.

The question is: should everyone who wants an NHS dentist have access to one?

There are some good reasons why such access is important. Some children would never be taken to a dentist’s if their parents had to pay anything and that surely stores up long term problems for the future. Older people who have lived all of their lives with the NHS system, and who often have the most needs, struggle to come to terms with the fee-paying world. Others would argue that we must have NHS cover across every spectrum of healthcare, including our teeth.
So what’s the answer: allow NHS dentistry to slip into history, or invest in a modern version?

posted by Nigel on Monday, May 10, 2004