Dentist costs.

[cooky1]

I lost a filling over the Christmas period. Today I got my tooth re-filled. When I went to pay it cost me £42.30!!! Not much I could do really, but not a bad earner for the dentist for 15mins work.

Anyone else paid this much for a filling?

Graeme.

 

[GillC1]

Graeme

The funny thing is at our dentist if you have one filling they charge

 

[gypsy]

I went to the dentist yeasterday, for a check up, I was in the chair about 7 minutes, that cost me

 

[Val & Frank]

I pay

 

[LMH]

Hi Graeme

I think that's about the going rate these days. Like Frank, I have to pay around

 

[Damian]

There are 3 levels of charge now, with

 

[Damian]

Just found this link:

http://www.nhs.uk/England/Dentists/DentalCharges.cmsx

 

[Lol1]

I was charged the correct

 

[Guest]

I think there are other ways of maybe looking at this. If you get a cheap price but your teeth fall out, do you think it is still a good deal? After all, you only normally get the one set in your adult lifetime. Personally, if I pay the dentist and he shows serious interest in my dental health, as does the one I currently have, then to my mind the money is well spent. I had years of NHS dentists who were only interested in filling, or pulling teeth as they made more money that way.

The man that pays the piper etc etc is to my mind still valid.

 

[Val & Frank]

A friend of ours went for his check up at the dentist.The dentist said " You should see your Dr tomorrow for a check up, I will give you a note to take with you". He saw the Dr the next day, and a week later he had, had his jaw bone removed. It was one of the most aggressive cancers you can have. Money well spent on the check up, we both think !!!

Val & frank

 

[Moonstone1]

There are now three prices charged. The first

 

[Oldfogey]

My dentist went private a couple of years ago, and the cost for an examination went up to

 

[Viking1]

A bout three years a go I had to go to the dentist to have three caps new caps made and have so filling as well and a clear as well.

I must had mitt it did not seem as if I was in long for the filling but with the caps I had to have them made which tuck a mouth and when I had them fitted I was there for over two hours.

Mark

 

[Jim_77]

I had my 6 monthly visit to my dentist last week and when I got home commented to my wife that it was a cheaper hourly rate than taking the car to the garage.

I thought it was very good value for money.

Jim

 

[cooky1]

Jim, you must go to some very expensive garages.

 

[Jim_77]

Graeme, no fillings etc so no

 

[cooky1]

Jim, I think I'll go to your dentist next time!!

Graeme.

 

[CliveV]

Dentists and Doctors in General Practice are all technically general practitioners.

Both were "unique" (I know that is a contradiction but bear with me please) in that they were allowed under the old Parliamentary A9 concession to be members of an employers occupational pension scheme but remain Self Employed for tax purposes.

This came about because when the NHS was set up in 1948 all the then current Dr's and Dentist in the country had very nice practices set up thank you very much and why should they give all that up to join this new untried NHS "thingy".

So they were allowed to gently "fold into" the NHS and remain self employed. There official title is "Independent Contractors" to the NHS. (The do not appreciate the more correct "Sub-Contractors" to the NHS)

To get them on-board - a few carrots had to be dangled in front of them. One, and it is a big one! - is membership of the NHS Pension Scheme even though technically a Self Employed person cannot ever do this. It was "steam-hollered through via the Parliamentary Concession A9 that allowed it.

So there really is one rule for the medics and one rule for the rest of us.

The scheme rules had to be changed in a big way because whilst the employees worked on the basis of 1/80ths accrual of final salary, a GP, (Doctor or Dentist) had no salary - they were self employed so the accrual calculation was worked out on the basis of 1.4% of Uprated Dynamised Career Eanings.

(If anyone is interested I can explain but it takes another page)

All was well for many years and then the powers that be decided that this remuneration scheme and pension package was too generous and so they started picking at the Dentists package because they were a smaller and less influential group than the Doctors.

The result ultimately was a mass exodus of Dentists from the NHS when the Dentists en'mass told the D of H to stick their new contract where the sun does not shine (Dentists get on well with proctologists obviously)

So now we have possible the worst dental care system in Europe unless you can afford insurance premiums or private practice and as of the introduction of the new GP (Doctor) contract the most highly paid General Practitioners in Europe.

Why?

1) Because the Dept of Health knew that the Doctor GP's would follow their Dentist colleagues and walk out of the NHS if pushed too far as the D of H pushed the Dentists in the 80's and 90's.

2) Because the GP contracts are now with the Practice rather than the individual GP (who could then form a partnership with others if they wished but this arrangement was NOT subject to any Health Authority/PCT overview). This means that groups of GP's have FAR more clout than they ever did before. Totally the opposite of what was predicted by the management consultants who came up with the idea.

So now we have GP (Doctors) that give up 6% of their "Global Sum" (A miniscule amount!) and in return they have no OOH's (Out of Hours) responsibility!

This has meant that in some PCT, Ambulance personal have provided the OOH's cover. Also some PCT's have flown in Doctors from Poland, Germany etc. to provide cover at night and at weekends.

Meanwhile the GP has better hours and an average 30% pay rise.

And I think they in the main deserve it. I do not want my kid to be seen at night by a GP who has worked all day and only had a couple of hours sleep before I called him/her out!

But they only achieved this because the Dentist held two fingers up to the Dept of Health a decade or so before and the Treasury was running scared!

 

[Guest]

I think at the end of the day one has to ask if the service to the general public is getting better, or worse? It is fully accepted that doctors should not be subjected to intolerable hours, anymore than anyone else should be. But it was for many years an accepted part and parcel of that particular career, and it did not seem to stop applications. I suspect that the majority who went in to medicine did it because they felt they were doing a worthwhile job, rather than how much money they would make.

The system that appears to operate nowadays is rather piecemeal and the treatment you can receive depends too much on where you live, which makes a mockery of having a National Health Service. Many out of hours services now seem to consist of a telephone 'chat' with either a nurse, or a doctor, with a final advice to head for the nearest A&E Unit if things are bad. Even when you get there it is possible you will be seen by a junior doctor, who has him/herself been working very long hours.

I accept that unfortunately the days of Doctor Findlay etc are long gone, more is the pity. However, the knowledge a doctor has of his patient from personal contact can be invaluable in making decisions, which may not be so useful when a locum is only looking at case notes.

I note our illustrious Health Minister has admitted the Government screwed uwhen they designed the new Contracts, but complaints from someone who currently earns well over

 

[CliveV]

Agree Scotch Lad.

But please be aware that we do not have a National Health Service - is an INTERNATIONAL Health Service where anyone who turns up on our shores can get treatment but the elderly who have paid NIC's all their lives get their house sold from under them when they need long term care.

Now those that know me will, I hope, realise that I am most certainly proud of the reputation the UK has for being a haven of compromise for genuine refugees.

But the way this country now treats its own is truly appalling