Police called to manage crowds on opening day of St Pauls dental practice, formerly a Bupa facility
    • Nester@feddit.ukEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      From what i understand there’s plenty of dentists, but they are all private. The government doesn’t maintain dentists as part of the NHS, in effect they subcontract the work out to private dentists.

      We do get subsidised dentil treatment, but it’s limited in scope, and the way the government has handed out the contracts means there’s not enough spaces to go around.

      I live in a city, and it took almost 18 months for me to get accepted as an NHS patient…in the next city over! But I was offered private treatment instantly at dentists surgeries that had “no space”. The system is a fucking joke.

    • MonsterMonster@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Yes and no. Virtually all dentists surgeries are run by self-employed dentists. At one time most would have mainly provided treatment that is subsidised by the NHS and also provided an amount of private patient treatment. These subsidies have not been increased over time making provision of NHS dentistry a loss. The dentists have dropped out of the NHS funded scheme to focus on private work.

      Consequently, the cost of, private, dental treatment is now prohibitively expensive.

      This has been going on for decades and we are starting to see it in the general NHS medical care. The conservertives hate the NHS and they want to get rid of it and introduce a privatised health care system, all to make money.

      This picture sums up the conservertives.

      Here’s a summary insight.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Police were called to manage hundreds of people lined up outside a dentist in Bristol, who had flocked to the newly opened practice desperate to secure an NHS appointment.

    The St Pauls area in Bristol has been without a dentist for seven months after the site closed last June.

    Avon and Somerset police said they had told those who were further back in the queue that they were unlikely to reach the front before the end of the day but added they did not ask anyone to leave.

    Maria, 80, a local resident, told Bristol Live: “The dentist has been closed for some time.

    Preet Kaur Gill, the shadow minister for primary care and public health, said on X: “99% of dentists across the south-west aren’t accepting any new adult patients.

    The British Dental Association said fundamental reform was needed to prevent similar situations happening in the future.

    The original article contains 386 words, the summary contains 148 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!