Missing patients try dentists' patience

6:06pm Friday 25th January 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

Two new dental practices taking NHS patients have experienced a high number of missed appointments in their first months of operation.

Patients who fail to attend are now being warned they could soon find themselves back on the NHS waiting list.

About 14,000 patients are currently being registered to the practices in Milford Haven and Haverfordwest which opened in November.

But a spokesman for Pembrokeshire Local Health Board (LHB) said: "Both practices have been experiencing a high number of failures to attend appointments. Patients are encouraged to make every effort to attend their appointments or contact the practice if they are unable to attend so that their appointment can be allocated to another patient on the list."

The spokesman warned: "Patients should be aware they may be removed from the practice list if they fail to attend on two or more occasions.

"Patients would then lose their entitlement to NHS registration at that practice and would need to rejoin the waiting list held by the LHB."

The process of transferring patients from the list to the practices is currently underway. Many patients have been without a dentist since most of the county's practices opted to provide private care only. Under this system twice yearly check-ups alone can cost £60, which families on limited incomes say they cannot afford.

In desperation, people have registered on the LHB's waiting list and now that the new practices are up and running they will be contacted in the coming weeks.

Contracts introduced two years ago mean dentists are no longer paid for each NHS treatment carried out, but are instead given a guaranteed NHS income - an average of £80,000 a year - for three years. This is designed to stop a small number of dentists performing unnecessary treatment.

Under the new contracts dentists are required to spend more time addressing preventative measures as well as carrying out 95% of the courses of treatment they currently provide.