dental practice July 2009
www.dental-practice.org
and based on the previous year’s recommending that patients should be despite record expenditure; access worrying development that has
activity, were drawn up together with seen less often, would allow more rationed by the allocation of treatment accompanied this – an unprecedented
details on what was to be provided in patients to be seen. quotas rather than being guaranteed in 25 per cent increase in the number of
exchange for the contract value, PCTs were also made responsible for a demand-led service; around 50 per dentists being trained.
calculated in units of dental activity assessing and addressing local oral cent fewer band 3 treatments provided, This is in part due to excess demand
(UDAs) which, along with the contract health need and public dental health. yet the over 45-year-olds, caught in the for NHS dentistry being wrongly
value, were protected for three years. The consequence of introducing a restorative cycle, will have the greatest associated with a shortage of dentists –
Finally, the dental budget was cash- non-piloted, radically different system demand for dental care over the next what one senior civil servant described
limited, which stopped the service was to re-introduce uncertainty into 20 to 30 years; patient charges for as an “absolute famine of dentists”.
being demand-led. the business of running a dental items like crowns increasing by almost If this continues, it will depress the
Government claimed that the main practice, with implications not only for 180 per cent, leading to reductions in market, private as well as NHS, reduce
driver for change was to enable GDPs its dynamic but, ultimately, the demand, with some patients opting for earnings and ultimately service
to step off the “treadmill” of item of provision of NHS care: one treadmill extraction rather than restoration; the provision.
service and adopt a more preventive replaced by another, compounded by realisation, over two years on, that It is almost as if there is a fall-back
approach to dental care. Reducing UDAs ceasing to be individually “need” does not translate into demand position of privatising the market by
treatment to three bands would lead to determined and inevitably driven down … need I go on? stealth but with the supply of dentists
minimal intervention and shorter to the lowest denominator; many It is therefore not surprising that the being increased to ensure that prices
courses of treatment. practices not reaching their targets; exodus into the private sector are kept down!
This, together with NICE guidelines over a million fewer patients seen continues, but there is a deeply • stevetidman@btinternet.com
The Lux Letter
Dear Colleague...
with increased sales, over such a long of how our oft maligned profession
period of time. became heroic when a 15-year-old
As Sir Paul stated to the DT: “The Derby girl went for a routine extraction
W
HEN you read this column, mortgage interest was relatively low, so of four teeth. Tests showed she was in
the results of the English I decided that this was a preferable imminent danger of a heart attack,
local elections and for our option as it cost the taxpayer less, when it was found her blood pressure
MEPs will be known. I am writing this though I lost money on the much- was dangerously high. Scans showed
column on election day: wish I had a reduced dental practice.” that her aorta only had a diameter of
crystal ball in front of me. Here we go again with that scare 2mm, compared with a norm of
However, there is no doubt the tactic of including HIV in an infection 14mm. After surgery she has made a
voting will be influenced by the furore case. Not news to me or the Welsh full recovery, I am pleased to report. CRHE does finally control both
over our MPs’ expenses, and no dentist whose case I became involved Turning to the ridiculous, did you professions, I’ll have a wager they will
surprise to see that our only dentist with. Most newspapers briefly see that a GP in Preston, Dr Nicola appeal – often – against “sentences” as
MP, Sir Paul Beresford, was in the mentioned the situation, but I was sent Williams, had £35 docked from her being too lenient, and those of you
firing line, which made me read the a copy of the relevant piece in the local money because she was too good, too working to ensure a dental NHS will
report in the Daily Telegraph with newspaper. conscientious! That’s right: money still have to pay for this quango. And
interest. So this dentist, who worked in the deducted because there hasn’t been a the Government will still have the gall
Compared to duck houses, porn area from 2003 until December 200, single complaint, so her local NHS to state that we are a self-regulating
films and the rest of the lamentable has come into the spotlight because of were unable to monitor how she deals profession.
information being revealed, I something that happened when working with complaints! I was sent an article from the Daily
personally don’t think Sir Paul need in the Bournemouth area in 2008. So We have all been aware of the Echo which reports a campaign by
hang his head in shame over the use of what happened in Bristol? Nothing at extraordinary efforts of Challenge, run some Hampshire residents against the
his surgery premises. The headline, all. No infection, no complaints, but like by Eddie Crouch (why no OBE) and proposal to fluoridate their water. So
“MP who doubled as dentist used the Wales situation, scaremongering is John Renshaw, and I exhorted you to strong is the feeling that a fighting fund
waiting area as ‘sitting room’,” was the order of the day. Indeed, South contribute to their fighting fund. has been set up as they are prepared to
written to promote discord among Gloucestershire NHS admitted the risk I have just read in GDPUK a notice go to court and mount a legal
readers. Well I’ve got news for the to patients was very low, but wanted to about a survey about to be taken by challenge. Already collecting signatures,
Daily Telegraph. When I was first in reassure patients. By suggesting they them, and I hope you will support that they will need thousands of pounds for
practice, my lounge area was also the might have HIV? effort in your thousands. Briefly, they such a challenge, but I would not be
waiting area for patients, and over the Why didn’t they take notice of what want your input about working with surprised if that money is collected. So
years I have visited many practices their director of public health had to the 2006 contract. It will be a simple when Eddie Crouch and his team need
where the home owner had to double say? Dr Chris Payne stated: “There has questionnaire, and the answers will your financial support again, dig deep.
the waiting area and their lounge. never been a documented case in the help them in future negotiations on Finally, we dentists get blamed for a
On becoming an MP, the fees office UK of blood-borne viruses being your behalf. lot of ills, but Manchester had a case
actually suggested to Sir Paul he buy a passed from one patient to another in a With the imminent replacement of that takes a lot of beating. Martin
second home, but he decided to reduce dental practice and the risk is very, very the present GDC with an appointed Pearson, from Chorlton in Manchester,
his time as a dentist, and use part of low.” Council, it is pertinent to ask what will appeared in court and was given a
the flat where his surgery was situated He also admitted: “We have no change, especially as the present GDC community service order for losing his
for his own use. When he decided to evidence that the dentist’s practice was states it regulates dentists while temper by swearing and waving a chair
convert the practice back to its original poor while [in the Bristol area] but we protecting patients. Contrast that with at staff. His defence was that he had
size, he stopped claiming second home realise that former patients may be the GMC with its emphasis on been refused treatment for an abscess
allowances, and stated he wouldn’t be anxious.” “ensuring good medical practice”. at Manchester Dental Hospital.
claiming in the future. So 5000 former patients are being I was on the GDC when the
If the sleazy, greedy MPs of all three invited for blood tests for HIV and Government demanded that anyone Yours sincerely
main parties had been as reasonable as Hepatitis, bringing back memories for erased from the Register should not be
this MP, the Daily Telegraph wouldn’t me of the same stupidity in Wales. allowed back for five years, thus
have been able to rake in the money, It pleased me to read a short report ensuring the end of a career. If the

DP July 09 4,6-7,21,24,26-27,34,7 7 24/6/09 11:12:13
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