Why Can’t I Find a NHS Dentist in Gloucestershire
The History of NHS Dentists inGloucestershire
Finding a NHS dentist in Gloucestershire is verydifficult, though NHS dental practices do exist - they’re just very few andfairly far between, so you may have to travel.
NHS Dentistry in Gloucestershire changedsignificantly in 1992 when the government of the time decided that they weregoing to cut the fees paid for NHS dentistry, forcing the owners of dentalpractices into one of few choices:
• Cut the wages of all their staff in order to keep the business afloat
• Absorb the entire fee cut themselves, resulting in the owner effectively taking a 35% pay cut
• Change the practice to a private basis
Given the choices, it was unsurprising that mostof the dental practices chose not to continue with NHS Dentistry and convertedto private practice.
What changed when practices converted from NHS Dentistry in Gloucestershire
When all the NHS dental practices inGloucestershire left the NHS, converting to private practice, it meant that,rather than delivering dental treatment that was restricted to certain itemswithin the NHS, the practices could expand the types of treatment they offeredand the quality of materials that could be used. They could also allow more time to spend with each patient to use improved techniques so that any dentalwork would last longer.
In order to learn these newer techniques (that were not able to be delivered within the NHS Dentistry system) all the practices formed an Independent Dental Practitioners Group, Gloucestershire Independent Dentists, which was tasked with improving the education for dentists so that they could deliver better, higher quality treatments for their patients.
What About Children’s NHS Dentistry in Gloucestershire?
Most dental practices, despite the cut in funding in 1992, maintained a NHS dental service for children. The dental practices effectively subsidised the NHS fees that were paid from children with some of the funds paid for private dentistry.
In 2006 the dental contract changed with the government changing the ways dentist were paid for treatment, generating Units of Dental Activity (UDAs), and many dentists decided that they could no longer offer the NHS Dental service.
What are UDAs and how do they relate to NHS dental treatment?
UDAs are a way to collect and monitor funding for NHS dental treatment, ensuring that the monies allocated to dentistry are not too high for the government.
UDA’s are charges paid by patients but do not really relate to the treatment provided, with dental practices often having to provide free services within the “band of treatment”.
For example, if a patient needs four fillings then the dental practice is paid the same amount of funding as if only one filling had been completed. This means that many of the patients who need multiple treatments cost practices money, and very few NHS dental practices take on new patients because of this.
How do I find an NHS Dentist in Gloucestershire?
There are still some dental practices that provide NHS dental treatment to adult patients in Gloucestershire, but there are only a few.
The NHS dental practices are normally so busy it will be difficult to be accepted onto their books, and there may be a considerable wait for treatment to be completed.
The best way to find a NHS Dentist in Gloucestershire is to visit the NHS website and put in your location into the search bar.
However, what is provided by the website is a list of all the practices that have a NHS dentistry contract. It does not provide a list of all the dentists that have capacity, so the only way to find out is to ring every practice on the list and find out - often the practice websites are out of date so you can only get real time information by ringing and asking.
Because the list is generated geographically, if you start at the top of the list the first practice that says “yes” is actually the closest to you.
