New National Dental Recovery Plan
The plan proposes a variety of initiatives, backed by £200m of Government funding, to offer up to 2.5m additional appointments to adults and children across England:
- A ‘new patient payment’ of between £15 and 50 bonus to be paid to dentists for every new person they see on the NHS if the person has been unable to be seen in the past two years.
- New mobile dental vans to treat people in 12 remote areas.
- A £20k ‘golden hello’ payment will be offered to 240 dentists to work in areas of high need if they agree to stay in the area for three years. Those areas will be decided in the coming months.
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An increase in the minimum amount of payment made to dentists for NHS work.
Bonus payments will be offered to dentists from March 2024, but it is for to individual practices to decide if they will take up these incentives to provide more NHS appointments. Healthwatch Rutland understands that the 12 areas to be served by dental vans do not cover Rutland at this time.
It’s important to understand that dentists don’t work the same way as GPs. Their payment from the NHS is per treatment and not per patient and they don’t formally ‘register’ patients. A dentist may agree to see you regularly and put you on an informal list, but they are under no obligation to keep seeing you as an NHS patient permanently. If you are able and can afford to travel outside of Rutland, you can try to be seen at any NHS dental practice in England.
Dentists must keep listings on the NHS website up to date, but availability of appointments changes quickly so you may have to ring around and keep trying:
Find a dentist on the NHS website
If you have a dental emergency, and no regular dentist, call NHS111 who will refer you to an urgent dental service. If you are experiencing heavy bleeding or injuries to your face, mouth or teeth, visit Accident and Emergency.
