Dentists remove over 50,000 NHS patients from practice lists

Dentists in Northern Ireland have eliminated more than 53,000 NHS patients from their practice lists in the last two years, according to BBC News NI.

Duration 2023 and 2024, 114 dentists returned their NHS contracts to the Department of Health (DOH), and many of these now do private work only.

Of the 360 ​​dental practices in Northern Ireland, only two are now of NHS.

Peter Corkish said he was surprised to receive a letter three weeks ago to register in a private plan of his dentist: “My wife has hidden numerous dentists and everyone says the same, who only have to take private patients.”

The figures obtained by BBC News do not show that in 2023, the dentist eliminated 12,924 NHS patients of their practices, but that figure reached 40,980 last year.

The figures also revealed that until January this year, there were 192,780 patiens less registered with a dentist.

That figure includes “expired” patients who have not attended their dentist for some time and have fallen from the registration list.

Some patients have sacrificed the opportunity to register in private payment plans, covering basic checks and cleaning, with additional treatments charges that depend on the amount of money that each month must pay.

Corkish, from Ballyymoney, Anthrim’s county, said he and his wife had tried to find other NHS dentists in their city and in the nearby Colleraine and Ballymena, but they have not had luck.

“He said that, as or July, the dental practice with which we are no longer sacrifices of that national health service and we are given the option if we want to stay with them, to obtain a dental plan or simply register as a normal private patient.

“No one attends to the National Health Service (patients).

“There is a question that I would like to ask local politicians and parliamentarians and ask them is the end of the National Health Dental Treatment within Northern Ireland.

Kegan Lewis has the only dental practice in Dungiven, Londnderry County.

It is a predominantly health service practice with approximately 95% of its 4,500 to 5,000 patients receiving NHS treatment.

Mrs. Lewis said she faces “great demand” of patients who wish to register with a NHS practice as “more and more practices abandon health service”, but their surgery is at their capacity.

She said that if her practice can no longer provide NHS dental care, there will be “vulnerable groups” unable to access a dentist.

Mrs. Lewis said the NHS dentistry is a “highly regulated service” that follows a “high volume and under margin model.”

“It is a professional service and that creates a cost load for a dental practice to operate,” he said.

“The rates are established by the Department of Health, but more and more, these rates simply do not cover the cost of being open and serve our patients.”

One of Mrs. Lewis, Dorothy Hegarty, said “I would prefer to trust NHS instead of going privately.”

“I think it is very exensive and probable unnecessarily exensive,” he said.

“People who have low income … They shouldn’t have to wait more than me who might go private if I wanted or for or for or”.

Mrs. Hegarty said that if her dentist closed in Dungiven, it would be “quite serious” and would have a “great impact” on many people.

The Union of Dentists, the British Dental Association (BDA), warned that there may be greater erosion of NHS services, since the cost of delivering them means that many dental practices are becoming financially unfeasible.

The DOH has been in a confrontation with the BDA on the reform of payments made to dentists.

Last year, the department said that £ 9 million would be invested in dental services in Northern Ireland.

However, the BDA says that it does not reach what is required and asks for additional reform.

Dr. Ciara Gallagher, president of the Ireland Committee in Northern BDA, said that configuration and operation dentists face the dentists are “astronomical” and the doh payments do not reflect the thesis.

“You are in an impossible situation that you have to choose between the acceptance of a patient who needs or the viability of your business,” he said.

Dr. Gallagher said the promise of the Minister of Health Mike Nesbitt for reform by 2027 was welcome, but did not deal with current problems.

Patients with urgent dental problems can be treated under the dental access scheme, which were established for unregistered patients, asylum seekers and refugees.

There are 34 practices signed in the scheme, which represents less than 10% of the dental practices of Northern Ireland.

The BBC has made several requests for an interview with the Northern Ireland dental director, Caroline Lappin, but was not available.

In a statement, the DOH said that the decrease in registered patients, to the people who fall from the dentist lists due to not having attended for two years and practices not registering new patients.

He said that dentists were not under obligation to register patients with health service.

There was an investment in dental access schemes, which had also led to almost 34,000 children registered with dentists since June 2024, he said.

The department added that a review of dental services was being carried out, but said that the assigned budget “is not enough to meet the needs of the current service, much less introduce the transformative exchange rate that is needed.”