METALMICKY
Well-known member
- Jan 30, 2004
- 6,760
Indeed. The old NHS ' item of service' payment system did need replacing as it nurtured a ' drill and fill ' culture as it was effectively piece work. It also encouraged over prescribing and unnecessary treatment as opposed to preventative. However, the new UDA ( units of dental activity) based contract introduced in 2006 brought a new raft of issues.I don't claim to be an expert and the data below is a few years old, but NHS dentistry started to fall away under Labour when they forced a new contract on all dentists. I got kicked out of my dentist at that point and have never gone to see another dentist since. Anyway, from a few years ago but I don't think dentists can complain of being hard up :
View attachment 162873
Having worked for the NHS body that paid and also monitored the work of all the NHS dentists in England and Wales, I'm always a bit cynical about so many dentists claiming they can't make a living. That's also borne of the fact that for 20 of those years I worked for the Probity team that investigated fraud and simply poor dentistry.