NHS dentists overcharging, say Tories

Patients are being overcharged for NHS dental work by up to £109 million a year, the Tories said today.

An analysis of data from primary care trusts (PCTs) across England suggests dentists could be recalling patients just weeks after their first treatment and then charging them twice.

In October, the Government said it believed dentists could be recalling healthy patients for check-ups and dividing courses of treatment unnecessarily.

Chief dental officer Barry Cockroft has been in talks with health chiefs about the issue.

The way payments are divided under the dental contract means dentists can claim twice as much by spreading treatments across different appointments or calling patients back for unnecessary check-ups.

Guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) says no patient should be called back to their dentist for a check-up within three months.

The Government has also said patients only have to pay once for each course of treatment and, if they need further work within two months of completing that course, they do not have to pay anything extra.

The Conservatives questioned every PCT in England to find out how many patients were having to go back to their dentist within a three-month period for treatment and were paying more than once.

According to the Tories, this data shows that dentists are pushing patients just over the two-month limit of what can be counted as one course of treatment, charging patients twice and therefore earning more money.

If the advice from Nice had been followed, then up to 6.5 million slots could have been freed up for people who do not have an NHS dentist, the Conservatives said.

Patients would also have saved up to £109 million in incorrect dental charges - 23 per cent of the £475 million patients pay in charges every year, they added.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Labour's management of NHS dentistry has been appalling.

"Not only have millions been left without a dentist, but now we learn that those who do have one are often being charged more money than they should be.

"The blame here lies with Labour's botched dental contract, which incentivises dentists to increase the number of charges to patients and has led to such drastic cuts in the number of people being able to find an NHS dentist.

"The Government urgently needs to admit that the dental contract has been a monumental failure, get a grip and put an end to these practices immediately.

"At the moment we're all losing out - those who do have a dentist are paying wrongful charges and those who don't are being blocked from finding one because there aren't enough appointments left."

Dentist Anthony Halperin, a trustee of the Patients Association, said the new contracts were "fundamentally flawed" and should be scrapped immediately.

He agreed that some dentists were "using the system to get increased benefits".

"We should scrap the contract. We would have to go with the contract as is but consider alternatives - be prepared to go back to the drawing board," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"It is not working. Any contract where dentists are able to alter the system, where they have to be on a treadmill to gain their income, must be wrong for the patients and wrong for the dentists."

Health Secretary Alan Johnson rejected the Tory claims and calls for the contract to be scrapped.

"The question of whether dentists are fiddling the system to the tune of £109 million, which is what Andrew Lansley is claiming, I think is wrong.

"What it is time to do is to look at this system, which is why I have asked an independent person - Professor Jimmy Steele who is hugely respected in dentistry - to look at this system.

"There are parts of the country where it is difficult to access NHS dentistry and I want him also to look at many other aspects of this, including this issue of whether there is too much 'gaining' in the system - of dentists actually calling people back just to make money."

Rejecting any suggestion that the new contracts had failed, he said: "I do not accept that at all.

"There is extra money going in; it is a simpler system; the proportion of patients being charged is stable at around 27 per cent."