Tens of thousands of NHS patients go private
Scottish Government says it is working to stem the tide
The Scottish Government has been accused of letting dentistry “rot away” as new figures reveal a huge increase in the number of patients leaving the NHS and signing up to private dental plans.
Figures obtained by the Labour Party under freedom of information show that nearly 30,000 patients in Scotland dropped off the NHS dental register to take up private dental plans over a two-year period from 2022 and 2023, with a further 4,062 doing so in the first half of 2024.
This compares with 3,169 over a three-year period from 2019 to 2021, although some data was unavailable in these years for some health board regions. The true scale of the issue will be even larger as not all health board record figures for patients leaving the NHS in this way.
We need to be encouraging more dentists to work for the NHS so that everyone is able to register as an NHS patient
Paul Sweeney
The responses cover only six health board areas – Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Tayside, Highland, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire & Arran – so some other large health boards such as Lothian and Grampian are missing.
Since the pandemic, a growing number of high street dental surgeries across Scotland have been closing their NHS lists to new patients or opting out of providing NHS dental services to adult patients.
In many cases patients are left with the choice of leaving the practice or signing up to private dental plans. Some patients who cannot afford the fees have found themselves de-registered from practices, but unable to find a replacement NHS dentist within their area. Previous research found that one in five dental practices in Scotland were not accepting new NHS patients.
Scottish Labour said the situation meant some patients were “handing over their savings in agony” because they had been left with no option except private dental care. Paul Sweeney, Scottish Labour’s spokesman for dentistry, said: “NHS dental care has rotted away under the SNP when we need to be encouraging more dentists to work for the NHS so that everyone is able to register as an NHS patient.”
Last November, the Scottish Government introduced a revised payments system which increased the fees for NHS dental procedures. It was designed to encourage dental practices to stay in the NHS and spend more time on NHS work to help bring down waiting lists.
A Scottish Government spokesman told The Herald newspaper: “We are improving access to NHS dentistry following disruption from the pandemic and have implemented significant NHS dental payment reform following extensive discussion with the sector.
“This has been well-received, with one million patients seen by an NHS dentist in the first three months of 2024, and we continue to work closely with NHS Boards in areas where access is proving more challenging. We are also engaging with our counterparts across the UK on initiatives to increase our dental workforce capacity through review and improvement to international pipelines.”