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Getty ImagesDentists in Northern Ireland have got rid of greater than 53,000 NHS sufferers from their apply lists over the last two years, BBC News NI has discovered.
During 2023 and 2024, 114 dentists passed again their NHS contracts to the Department of Health (DoH), with many of those now doing non-public paintings handiest.
Out of the 360 dental practices in Northern Ireland, handiest two at the moment are absolutely NHS.
Peter Corkish mentioned he used to be surprised to get a letter 3 weeks in the past to enroll to a non-public plan from their dentist: “My wife has rung numerous dentists and everybody’s saying the same, that they’re only taking on private patients.”
Figures received via BBC News NI display that during 2023, dentists got rid of 12,924 NHS sufferers from their practices – however that determine reached 40,980 closing 12 months.
The figures additionally published that as much as January this 12 months, there have been 192,780 fewer sufferers registered with a dentist.
That determine contains “lapsed” sufferers who’ve now not attended their dentist for a while, and feature fallen off the registration record.
Some sufferers were presented the danger to enroll to personal dental cost plans, which quilt elementary check-u.s.and cleansing, with fees for additonal remedies relying on the amount of cash they’ve to pay in each and every month.
Mr Corkish, from Ballymoney, County Antrim, mentioned he and his spouse had attempted to seek out different NHS dentists of their the city and in within sight Coleraine and Ballymena however have had no good fortune.
“It said that as of 1 July, the dental practice we’re with is no longer offering that National Health Service and we’re being given the option if we want to stay with them, to either obtain a dental plan or to just register as a normal private patient,” he defined.
“Nobody’s catering for National Health Service (patients) anymore.
“There’s one query I wish to put to native politicians and MPs and ask them is that this the top of nationwide well being dental remedy inside of Northern Ireland?”
‘Huge demand’ for NHS practices
Kegan Lewis has the only dental practice in Dungiven, County Londonderry.
It is a predominantly health service practice with about 95% of its 4,500 to 5,000 patients receiving NHS treatment.
Ms Lewis said she faces “massive call for” from patients wishing to register with an NHS practice as “increasingly practices go away the well being carrier”, but her surgery is at capacity.
She said that if her practice can no longer provide NHS dental care, there will be “inclined teams” unable to access a dentist.
Ms Lewis said NHS dentistry is a “extremely regulated carrier” which follows a “high-volume, low margin style”.
“It’s a qualified carrier and that does create a price burden for a dental apply to perform,” she mentioned.
“The charges are set via the Department of Health, however an increasing number of, those charges simply do not quilt the price of being open and offering carrier to our sufferers.”
Private care ‘unnecessarily expensive’
One of Ms Lewis’s patients, Dorothy Hegarty, said she would “wish to depend at the NHS moderately than move privately”.
“I simply suppose it is very dear and almost certainly unnecessarily dear,” she mentioned.
“People who’ve low source of revenue… don’t have to attend longer than the likes of me that perhaps may just move privately if I sought after to or needed to.”
Mrs Hegarty said if her dentist closed in Dungiven it would be “rather critical” and have a “main affect” on a lot of people.
Dentists’ prices ‘astronomical’
The dentists’ union – the British Dental Association (BDA) – has warned there may be further erosion of NHS services as the cost of delivering them means many dental practices are becoming financially unviable.
The DoH has been in a stand-off with the BDA over reforming the payments made to dentists.
Last year, the department said £9m was to be invested in dental services in Northern Ireland.
However, the BDA says that falls short of what is required and is calling for further reform.
Dr Ciara Gallagher, chair of the BDA’s Northern Ireland committee, said the set-up and running costs dentists are facing are “astronomical” and the DoH’s payments do not reflect these.
“You’re in an not possible scenario the place you’ve gotten to choose from accepting a affected person who wishes care or the viability of what you are promoting,” she said.
Dr Gallagher said the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt’s pledge for reform by 2027 was welcome but did not deal with the current problems.
Patients with urgent dental problems can be treated under the Dental Access Scheme, which was set up for unregistered patients, asylum seekers and refugees.
There are 34 practices signed up to the scheme – which represents less than 10% of Northern Ireland dental practices.
The BBC has made several requests for an interview with Northern Ireland’s Chief Dental Officer, Caroline Lappin, but she was not made available.
In a statement, the DoH said the decrease in registered patients was down to people falling off dentists’ lists because of not having attended for two years and practices not registering new patients.
It said dentists were under no obligation to register health service patients.
There had been investment in dental access schemes, which had also led to almost 34,000 children becoming registered with a dentists since June 2024, it said.
The department added that a review of dental services was under way, but said the budget allocated “isn’t enough to satisfy the desires of the present carrier, let by myself introduce the type of transformative exchange this is wanted”.
