Mydentist admits it cannot cope with demand
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- Published: Monday, 23 July 2018 07:38
- Written by News Editor
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The Daily Mail has reported that the dental corporate, mydentist, has admitted that it does not have enough dentists to carry out check-ups and treatments. Thousands of patients are unable to see an NHS dentist due to a recruitment crisis. The BDA told the paper that The British Dental Association, which represents dentists, said the problems were caused by Government cuts to dental services and overly restrictive targets.
The Daily Mail reports chaos as thousands of patients can’t see NHS dentists due to recruitment crisis at UK’s largest provider. “Mydentist, which has ten million patients on its books, admits it does not have enough dentists to carry out check-ups and treatments. Patients have had urgent procedures cancelled at the last minute and been told to wait for months or find another dentist. Others with painful tooth infections have been prescribed antibiotics, contrary to NHS guidelines, because no dentists are available to undertake treatment.”
The British Dental Association was reported as saying that the problems were caused by Government cuts to dental services and overly restrictive targets. “Government spending on NHS dental services has dropped from an average of £41 per head to £36, and that has hit dentists’ salaries.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman told the paper: “We are committed to supporting dentists and making sure the public can access top quality care, which is why we are trialling a reformed contract which better supports dentists, and have near record numbers of dentists working in the NHS. NHS England monitors local recruitment closely and we expect them to take appropriate action where any issues are identified.”
Tom Riall, CEO at IDH Group, which runs mydentist, said: “We support over 4m patients each year with the full range of dental treatments and continue to do so across our practices. In a small number of areas however we, like many other dental practices, are struggling to recruit enough dentists. We are doing everything we can to minimise the impact of this and to continue providing high-quality, timely care to all of our patients.
“Last year, 68% of the UK’s dental practices that tried to recruit dentists struggled to do so, and this problem is only going to get worse unless this issue is addressed. We support the Government’s decision to remove doctors from the Tier 2 visa cap, but urgent action is now needed to ensure other parts of the NHS, including dentistry, can recruit the skilled clinicians they need to support patients. We want to work with the Government and the wider dental sector to ensure this happens.”
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