NHS Dental Patients Should Get National Insurance Refund Says Dental Practitioners Association, UK

Main Category: Dentistry
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 06 Mar 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The DPA, the association which supports and represents dentists in general practice, has said that patients in areas where NHS dentistry is not available should be entitled to a refund of their National Insurance which they could then spend getting their teeth fixed in the private sector. In evidence to the House of Commons Health Select Committee on 28th February, Chief Executive Officer Derek Watson said that direct payment, similar to that already in existence in social care, is the solution in areas where NHS dentistry is now difficult or impossible to find.

DPA Chief Executive Derek Watson said to the committee "if someone who is being cared for by a relative at their own home has to go into residential care for periods of respite care, that person will be given a nominal amount, either directly or indirectly, which will be adequate to go into a facility which has been inspected and is regarded by the primary care trust as adequate. Should that person choose to go elsewhere, it is understood that they will then pay the balance themselves. This could work in dentistry. It saves people from having to pay twice for their healthcare."

The growing demand for direct payment has been explored by the Select Committee Chairman Kevin Barron in evidence sessions on 7th and 21st February and by the Patients Association, which in a media release dated 6th March called on the government to "…examine the accepted co-payments system for dentistry as the basis for expanding the availability of treatments elsewhere in the NHS e.g. non-NICE approved drugs."

In evidence to the Health Select Committee, Derek Watson also explained

- how it was possible that different dentists within the same practice could have different UDA values.

- how UDAs were related to the amount of treatment provided and why UDAs will tend to 'normalise'.

- the DPA's concerns for the NHS in April 2009 and why the current system was not piloted.

- the DPA's concerns about the cancellation of the 2008 Oral Health Survey.

- how the DPA warned the Department of Health about the problems.

- why a quick adjustment to 5 or 8 treatment bands is necessary.

- why there is no prevention under the new system.

- how and why the state could buy oral health improvements.

- how a preventive system might be funded and measured.

- how a system of direct payments would be fairer.

- why patients expect to pay the difference if they choose more expensive treatment.

- why dentists would be keen to embrace such a system.

- why NHS subsidy could not fall below the cost of treatment.

- why, without some imaginative and inclusive thinking, access to NHS dentistry will continue to deteriorate.

- why dentistry, as an 'arm's length' service has not benefited from NHS grants.

- why direct payment prevents citizens from paying twice for their care, especially where no NHS provision is available.

A new NHS dental contract introduced in April 2006 has cash-limited the NHS dental budget while giving greater powers to Primary Care Trusts to direct NHS dentists, but leaving them with the business risk of establishing practices. Dentists are reducing their dependence on the NHS due to the widening gap between the terms and conditions available on the NHS and privately.

The Dental Practitioners Association was established in 1954 and supports and represents dentists in general practice on terms and conditions in the UK.

Dental Practitioners Association