Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

:welcome: Simon
Nice site, could do with captions to go with the pictures (highlighting gum disease etc) and check your links are still valid on a regular basis.

I think the most misunderstood part of dentistry is the "prevention" of problems, both by the Govt and lack of funding and patients when it comes to treatment.

The chinese doctors only get paid for the healthy patients they have, so every time someone gets ill they stop being paid. A similar approach to dental health might be a way forward for the NHS (but with a limit to the number of patients each dentist can have on the books).

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

Hi Simon - :welcome: to Cable Forum

- I read your page, & totally agree about the ridiculousness of setting performance targets in health care.

One thing you may want to think about, is stating a few of your thoughts on how you feel you an offer a better service as a private, rather than NHS, practice?

My dentist went private this year, I've been with him for 12 years - even if there was a choice (no new NHS patients being taken on round here), I would have stayed with him. Since the change I have found he is able to be much more relaxed about the consultation & I no longer feel like I am a conveyor belt. I am not happy about the extra costs, of course, but they are somewhat offset by the improvement in the service.

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

Hi simon nice site, and theres no need to duck.

oops i nearly forgot the :welcome:

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

I didn't think ducks had teeth...?!

(Welcome and congratulations, you've just had your first CF "bad pun"! :D )

I think it reads very well as comments from someone who is (oops, another bad pun coming up!) fed up to the back teeth (see what I mean? ;) ) with the current situation that is helping nobody.

A suggestions on layout: you might want to ditch the frames (they can make it difficult for people to read and force stuff into tiny windows) and just have a header menu at the the top of the page.

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

I got nothing against dentist's themselves, like all of us they need to survive and I wasnt aware they had to pay for the clinic themselves, its no wonder more and more are becoming private only. I would guess that blair has decided dental problems arent high profile and less likely to make the press so he can afford to let the service suffer.

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

Good point, in an ideal world I would take a patient into an educational environment and spend about an hour teaching them all they need to know in order to look after their teeth. This would put them in a position to control their own dental health. (our motto comes to mind, "help yourself to dental health") Armed with this knowledge they would only get problems if they neglected their oral hygiene, received poor dentistry or were unlucky etc.

Practice expenses are about £150.00 per hour so this would cost, but the enlightened would see it as an sure thing investment.

This is real prevention, this sort of thing is not funded in the current or the new contract of April 2006. I imagine this sort of prevention is only available in private practice

simon

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

One has to be careful because of our terms of service. The latter end of This article (hope that works) identifies some of the problems. We cannot say that private is better than NHS.

All treatment that is neccessary is available on the NHS. Did you know that? If you can make a case that the treatment is neccessary then the dentist (if the treatment is within his capability) is obliged to provide that treatment on the NHS, nowhere does it say all NHS dental treatment must be profitable.

Indeed, when I do root canal treatments, single crowns, metal dentures, plastic dentures, large fillings and fillings on children on the NHS I know I am making a loss. I got over this years ago and now, because I see my adults privately, private fees subsidise these losses. Only because of private subsidy can I continue to privide NHS care.

The ethical dilemma's in dentistry are horrible, most dentists have managed to continue providing some NHS care by charging fee paying adults privately and continuing to see exempt patients and children on the NHS. This is now the norm and private fees subsidise NHS fees. Its not fair, but it allows children and those who have low income to continue receiving free dental treatment.

The new contract is designed to allow access for all, (fullfilling TB's 1999 pledge that everyone would have "access" to NHS dentistry within 2 years) and this (above) way of working will be a breach of our terms of service on the grounds of discrimination. This article refers to the BDA's attempts to get the discimination claws scrapped.

Dentists will likely have to choose entirely NHS or entirely private in April 2006. I will choose entirely private because I dont think the new way of working is good for my regular patients and I dont believe appropriate state funding will be available. This means my exempt patients and children will have to either pay privately or rely upon NHS direct. I really really really dont want to have to do that. I am effectively dividing my regular patients into those who can pay and those who cant and denying care to those who cant. Someone who doesn't know the detailed background to this situation will say "the dentist is going private because he is greedy" and thats how the politicians want it to appear, but the alternative is to force 'the new way of being treated' on all my patients, and 'the new way of working' upon myself, which is worse?

On the up side though there should be "access" for non private patients somewhere because those dentists who choose entirely NHS will be contracted to provide them with "access to NHS dentistry" It is likely that this "access" will be more like an emergency service, and will be provided by the NHS dentist at the expense of routine care for their regular patients, which will likely be waiting listed (the new way of being treated)

Caveat: it is possible that the current form of the new contract to be imposed on April 2006 is merely the governments first bargaining position and there may be amendments, if that occurs then the above position would change.

simon

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

This is at the heart of the matter.

Sorry for my rant in the last post this morning, I better shut up now before the GDC accuse me of bringing the profession into disrepute or something like that.

But the main message I think I wanted to get across is the "Blair powerless..." quote, and indeed the rest of the article, should be read as "we want the public to believe that dentists are irresponsibly behaving as a law unto themselves by going private and government will need to come down on them heavily" Its a spin war and they want the dentists to be the bad guys, and government be the good guys using the new contract as something to pull dentists back into line.

Simon

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

Just for fun. All six of the receptionists/dental nurses from my Dentists will be appearing on "Test the Nation" on Saturday.

I'm just waiting to see what anyone makes of the name "Babalooal and Owen" AKA "High Street Dental Practice". :D

Re: Blair 'powerless over dentists'
 

didn't know that - thanks ;)