Is the NHS is effectively being scammed by some so-called "Private" dental practices?
Here's how it seems to work.
A practice that was entirely NHS based now gradually becomes a mixed practice offering both NHS and Private dental treatments.
Consider the NHS patients of said practice. Some will be existing patients (some of many years loyal allegiance to a particular practice). Suddenly they will find it takes a longer and longer time to get an appointment - even for a basic "routine" check-up. These periods will extend and suddenly morph into CANCELLATIONS. This is the MIXED PRACTICE secret weapon. Two and three cancellations are not uncommon and, as has been said, extended periods of time between each cancellations - sometimes into months.
Some patients go elsewhere (if they can in fact register elsewhere) while others try the "complain to the Practice Manager" route. The latter is of course totally pointless as this is one of the manager's roles - to bat such complaints into the long grass never to be acted upon. The receptionists of course are "trained up" to expect all the usual distressed calls from exasperated suffering patients and a whole new language of responses is ready to be parroted to the caller. These include such things as "Dentist is/was away holiday/away ill/pregnant etc". When asked if a new appointment will definitely be possible they get the "We cannot predict the future" standard reply. Similar Orwellian responses are available for all such attempt to get a speedy appointment.
The other ploy of the mixed practice is to foist the unsuspecting patient onto another (usually new and inexperienced) member of the dental practice. The "newer" dentist(s) is/are often only there for a brief period and, it must be said usually could not give a damn about doing a good job. Also they do not usually have the gold-standard B.D.S. UK qualification. The "University of Backwater" is usually on the nameplate - if there is a nameplate at all. The reason for doing this is simply to leave the experienced dentist to do the VERY lucrative work such as implants and the like.
These mixed practices often employ a "Patient Consultant" who is there primarily to attend to the newly acquired "private" patients. These "consultants are of course not there for the patient - they exist for the dental practice and ensure maximal charges are made.
Thus the mixed practice forces the patient to "go private" to the very same practice. (exploiting the fact the patient may be in considerable pain).
A quick comparison of a NHS three-tier payment scale and a Private charge. To replace a Crown NHS Level three £275.00 Mixed Private Practice charge £475.00 plus
Being privately owned, as is the way of ALL privately owned schemes, they are in it for profit. In the case of dental practices they use Orwellian-speak to pretend to offer patient care and oral health as their top priority while in fact don't give a damn about it. In short many practices seem to be using NHS registration as a trawl mechanism for their own "private patients" conversion schemes.
If we get TTIP then forget healthcare unless you are very wealthy. Beware, friends.