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HEALTH By TOM FOOT
 
Dentists set to lose out on funding

New NHS targets are 'unrealistic'

A CHALK Farm NHS dental practice is set to lose 70 per cent of its funding due to a radical overhaul of how targets are hit.
From April 1, funding for dental practices will depend on dentists hitting targets, or Units of Dental Activity (UDA). The targets are based on how many patients they treated on the NHS last year.
They will have to sign new contracts with the Primary Care Trusts promising to hit targets and be held accountable if they do not.
Registration will be abolished under the changes, meaning patients will no longer be “on the books” at any practice.
An opponent of the scheme John Renshaw chairman of the British Dental Association, met the Camden and Islington Dental Committee in the Royal National Hotel, Bloomsbury, on Thursday.
Mr Renshaw, who criticised the government for not consulting dentists about the change, said: “This is going to happen, and it has been inspired with no input from the profession.”
He urged dentists to sign a statement reading: “The new contract is discouraging me from working as an NHS dentist” – and send it to Minister of State for Health Rosie Winterton.
Dentists say the new targets – which amount to dentists performing routine check-ups in just 12 minutes – are unrealistic.
Alan Bookey, who has worked in Albany Dental Centre in Haverstock Hill, Chalk Farm, for 20 years, said his funding had been slashed from £300,000 to £90,000 for NHS treatment next year.
He said: “We won’t lose staff or have to close the practice. It just means we will only be able to do one or two days worth of NHS treatment.”
Mr Bookey said the concept of a community dentist would change. He said: “I will have to turn away people I have treated since they were kids.”
Iain Tunnah, who works at Khambalia Dental Surgery in Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury – where former Health Secretary Frank Dobson has his regular check-ups – said the new system could see dentists forced to work for free or offer private care.
He said: “It leaves two options – treat people for free or offer them private treatment instead.”
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