BDA Calls For Patient Fines To Tackle Problem Of Missed Appointments

Thu, 20 Jan 2011

The Brtitish Dental Association (BDA) has called on the Governemnt to reintroduce fines for patients who miss their dental appointments.

Research carried out by the BDA found that there at least 3.5 million missed dental appointments in England each year.

It warned that this is preventing other patients from accessing NHS dental care as there are enough missed appointments to fill two weeks’ worth of slots for each NHS dentist in the country.

Dentists were previously allowed to charge patients’ who failed to turn up for their appointments, but this was changed in 2006 under the new dental contract.

John Milne, Chairman of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said: "Sometimes there are genuine reasons why its just not possible for a patient to keep an appointment with their dentist and everybody understands that, but the results of this research suggest that the scale of this problem is significant."

" Dental surgeries use letters, telephone calls and even text messages to remind patients of forthcoming appointments, so its really disappointing to see that so many people appear prepared to deny others access to care by failing to show up."

"This not only wastes dentists’ time, but also taxpayers’ money. With many people still failing to secure the dental appointments they want, and the public purse under pressure, that’s simply unacceptable."

"This problem needs to be tackled and the BDA believes that the Government should consider reintroducing a fee for patients who miss appointments to deter them from doing so."
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