Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT
The difference of course being, that NHS staff are not so well paid as in the private sector, made up for in part, by being paid when off work.
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A very common misconception. True in some cases, but most dentists that have left the NHS have done so over concerns of maintaining quality of care. You just can't see 50 patients/day for long without either burning out or dropping standards. Over the last 20 years we've lost good nurses to the NHS where their conditions of employment are so much better we just can't compete!
If I take out a difficult wisdom tooth and bill £200, it's regarded as expensive. It is 'free' to the patient if they can access the service on the NHS, so the private dentist is seen as taking advantage. The true cost to the public purse which funds the NHS is around twice that figure, but it's buried in the massive accounts of the system. I try to get all my patients NHS care when I can, since it's a no brainer from their point of view. Unfortunately, the NHS is oversubscribed so they have introduced road blocks like the IOTN (index of treatment need) which can lead to a refusal of treatment. But again, if I step in to do the refused orthodontic work, I have to charge minimum of £2k which is a lot for a young family to find and there is again the old chestnut of greedy private dentist making a killing. My pension will be very considerably below those of my NHS colleagues, most of whom retire at 65 with excellent pensions. I'm now 70 and still working. I'll probably still be working if fit enough at 75. Can't afford to retire lol. Fortunately for myself, I still get job satisfaction providing quality dentisty to my patients. Bit off topic, but I had to respond
