Executive In Cash Incentive To Boost NHS Dental Service In Deprived Areas

Dentists in Scotland’s most deprived areas are to get extra cash to help care for their patients. About 350 dentists are set to qualify for extra payments of up to £9,000 to improve their facilities and allow them to spend more time with patients.

The Executive also announced more money for practices treating more NHS patients. Many parts of Scotland, including East Lothian and parts of Grampian and the Borders, currently have no dental practices taking on new NHS patients.

Dental leaders in Scotland say the service has been thrown into crisis by the Executive’s definition of “NHS commitment”. Nearly 40 per cent of practices treating NHS patients are no longer considered “committed”, so do not qualify for allowances worth thousands of pounds.

To qualify, a dentist must treat at least 500 NHS patients, at least 100 of whom must be NHS fee-paying adults. A fall in the number of NHS patients on a list could also mean a practice is deemed to be uncommitted and its allowances taken away.

In efforts to address this, the Executive said it was introducing a time lag, so a practice that lost NHS patients on a temporary basis would still qualify for payments as long as it was back above the threshold within three months.

Lewis Macdonald, the deputy health minister, also announced a 25 per cent rise in payments for dentists who earn over £25,000 a year through NHS work. “We want to encourage more dentists to provide wide access to NHS treatment, and reward those who do so already,” he said.