More dental misery in Meon Valley

4.39.00pm GMT Mon 7th Jan 2008

Liz Leffman discussing the situation with dentist Dave Evans

Meon Valley residents fortunate enough to find an NHS dentist are now having fork out twice as much for a check-up as they did two years ago.

Research conducted by Meon Valley Lib Dems shows that 64 per cent of people in Meon Valley are unable to find an NHS dentist because of the government's mismanagement of the new dental contracts brought in two years ago.

The new contracts were supposed to increase places with NHS dentists, but have had the opposite effect. Many dentists now refuse to take on NHS patients with a lot of dental problems as they simply cannot recover the cost of remedial work.

On top of the dire lack of dentists, patients were forced to cough up a record £470 million in dental charges in 2006-07 after the government quietly increased fees by £60 million.

Liz Leffman, Prospective Lib Dem MP for Meon Valley, said: "It beggars belief that the small percentage of people in Meon Valley lucky enough to be registered with an NHS dentist are being charged twice as much for their first visit as in 2006.

"The Department of Health made it clear when the government introduced a new charging system two years ago that it would not increase the proportion of revenue raised from patients' charges - yet the minimum fee to visit an NHS dentist has gone up from £6 to £15.90."

In the first year of the new charging system (2006-07), the revenue from dental charges rocketed to £471.9 million. In 2005-06 the revenue was £409.8 million.

Liz added: "Things have gone from bad to worse under the new dental contracts, which are in urgent need of review.

"We need to give Primary Care Trusts the flexibility to employ NHS dentists, as well as contracting with private practices, to increase the number of dentists available, and scrap check-up charges to put the emphasis onto preventative care."