Very Strange

[teacake44]

That my local dentist is still only seeing you if an emergency for NHS clients due to covid. But the same dentist practice is re-advertising facial aesthetics / anti wrinkle injections at £175 a pop. About time government kicked their ass into gear, like they told doctors to start seeing patients face to face last week. Not something to do with earning the big bucks is it?

[Cloverjo]

I agree, teacake.

[Sqad]

teacake.........life is simple.
Imagine that you are a dentist and you are seeing ALL emergencies and you have just enough time to treat ONEpatient. The choice is between a NHS patient which will ring you in £300 OR a private patient that will ring you in £3000,which one would you give that only spare apps to?

As for the doctors, the reduction of face to face consultations should have happened 30 years ago.

[barry1010]

They can inject botox whilst the patient wears a mask. Drilling teeth sends buckets of spittle flying. They can charge private patients for the extra hygiene measures they have to employ, maybe the NHS won't cover those costs. As they can only allow a limited number of people in the reception and waiting areas and need to spend longer between patients on good hygiene practices it makes sense that emergency patients get priority.

My dentist is seeing NHS patients for non-emergency treatment but not routine check ups. They will see patients who have lost fillings, have minor toothache or have problems with bridges, dentures and so on.

Maybe you need to change your dentist

[teacake44]

If they don't want NHS then they should say so, stop using covid as the excuse ( dentists). The reduction in face to face should apply to the druggies and the ones they know just pester them on a regular basis. Not all, they can see by their files who is a pain in the neck.

[teacake44]

Barry there's many that are doing the right thing for the NHS, but there's many that are not. Matt Hancock said, the NHS is open for business??

[Bobbisox1]

I can almost feel the spittle landing on my iPad

[chelle7272]

Just because you are dentist doesn't mean you have to do work for the NHS. nor if you area doctor, or nurse, or many other practitioners. people can earn their money how they want. Change you dentist, plenty are working.

[teacake44]

11.22, they get paid to work for the NHS, and they choose to do so, but their not doing their job if their not seeing them. Don't forget to wipe your ipad 11.20

[woofgang]

Dentists, like GP's actually, are not employed by the NHS, they are contractors. This means that the government/NHS can only tell them what to do during the time that they are paying them...same as if you employ a builder. You have control of the time when you are paying them, not otherwise. For most GP's this is most/all of their time so it looks as though the government can tell GP's what to do. Dentists are exactly the same but usually only contracted to work part time for the NHS and can do what they like with the rest of the time....play golf, sell botox.....offer dental implants....anything they like.

[teacake44]

Dentists agree with government to take on NHS patients, therefore they should see them when requested. What's happening here is that they are keeping NHS patients hanging on a piece of string ( security) should the private sector start to fall off, and it will sooner or later due to loss of jobs with the big bucks, so they are using the NHS for their own ends, not for the health of NSH patients.

[Bobbisox1]

^^^ and you know this how, do you have someone working as a dentist perhaps ?

[Vagus]

Our dentist treats nhs and private patients, usually.
We are private patients (for the princely sum of £6 a month each) and I have seen my dentist twice recently, under his private practice system, for which I’m very grateful and has been well worth the £6 a month.
He could not have seen me to do the treatment he did, under current nhs rules.
I also saw another dentist at the same practice for emergency treatment under the nhs.
You pays your money and gets the benefits, just the way it is.

[teacake44]

12.32 Well you do and you're not arguing my point, so I must be right.

[teacake44]

12.59 That's not the way government say it is, the NHS is open for business, they had to instruct the doctors to resume normal practice, so should they tell the dentists to do so, or be taken off the NHS reg.

[woofgang]

teacake they can't. Seeing dental patients at the moment is a much longer and more expensive process that is usual and dentists don't make much out of their NHS committment anyway. With all the cleaning needed between dental interventions, dentists have said that in the hours they have committed to NHS work they can only see a proportion of the patients they used to see....like hairdressers and so on. If they are doing the hours they have committed to (and keep in mind they aren't paid by the hour but by the treatment) then there is nothing that the NHS can say or should say.

[webbo3]

my hospital is seeing very few emergencies. extraction only no fillings as the drilling generates what is called an AGP, aerosol generated procedure, one the procedure is over the room must be left for 1 hour, then cleaned for 45 mins before the next patient can be seen, the dentists and dental nurse will look like Heisenberg and pinkman during the procedure, thats why we can't see many people.