'Privatisation' alarm over dental shake-up
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A SHAKE-up of NHS dentists in the Highlands sparked by a reduction in Scottish Government funding for the Public Dental Service is "privatisation by the back door", according to a Highland MSP.
Rhoda Grant’s warning coincides with concerns from patients who are being transferred – without their consent – from dental surgeries run by NHS Highland to privately-run clinics.
The Scottish Government is reducing the funding for the PDS on the basis that patients with no additional needs can and should access NHS dental services through a High Street dentist, which also receive government funding to provide NHS treatment.
Last month, some patients were transferred from the Roberston Health Centre’s clinic at Dalmore Road in Alness to a general dental practitioner at Easter Ross Dental Care, Albany Road, Invergordon, a private dentist who has agreed to carry out NHS care.
Norman Chisholm, of The Glen, Kindeace, by Invergordon, said: "Myself and my wife have been registered patients with the NHS Highland Public Dental Service at the Robertson Heath Centre in Alness for around 25 years and we are now being forced, without any consultation or consent, to transfer to a new private dental clinic in Invergordon simply because, we are told, that NHS Highland is now being forced to go down this route by the Scottish Government in Holyrood.
"This certainly looks very much like privatisation...through the back door which could ultimately lead to the currently generally available NHS Public Dental Service being provided to only certain increasingly highly-restricted groups in society, if at all."
MSP Rhoda Grant said: "This is privatisation by the back door. People who waited for many years for an NHS dentist are now having their oral health put in jeopardy again. They receive no guarantees that they will get NHS treatment into the future with their new dentist or that they will be taken back into the community dental service if their new dentist opts out of the NHS."
SNP Highland MSP Maree Todd dismissed it as "scaremongering".
She said: "Lots of folk in the Highlands already receive NHS dental care from private dentists and have done so for many years. This change will ensure good access to NHS care and strengthen the service for those with complex needs." Under the Scottish dentist service, some practitioners are employed by their local NHS board.
They provide dental care under what is known as the Public Dental Service.
Other dentists, called general dental practitioners, are private contractors who can chose, if they wish, to provide NHS dental treatment or a mix of both NHS and private.
A government spokesman said: "We continue to invest significantly in NHS dental services."
NHS Highland said: "In the future should a general dental practitioner de-register patients then NHS Highland will work with the independent contractor sector and Scottish Government to ensure alternative access.
The Public Dental Services refocusing on those patients with additional needs has been mirrored by the reduction in the Scottish Government’s funding for the Public Dental Service and will deliver no savings to NHS Highland.
"Any dentist that provides NHS dental services, either as a Public Dental Service dentist or as an independent contractor, has the right to give a patient three months’ notice of their intention to de-register them."
