Today, from BBC Scotland:
David McColl, chairman of the British Dental Association’s Scottish dental practice committee said: “We’ve secured some improvements, but the fundamentals of a broken system remain unchanged. “The Scottish government have stuck with a drill and fill model designed in the 20th Century. They were unwilling to even start a conversation on making this service fit for the 21st.
“Ministers cannot pretend this is a final destination for NHS dentistry in Scotland. We struggle to see how these changes alone will close the oral health gap, end the access crisis or halt the exodus from the NHS.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66327813
I’ll come back to McColl, below, but first, though there is a wee nod toward the facts at the very bottom of the BBC report, these facts, rather than one man’s unchecked opinions get no mention where it matters, earlier while folk are still reading:
95.4% of the Scottish population were registered with an NHS dentist as at 30 September 2022. Nearly all adults living in the most deprived areas were registered with an NHS dentist in September 2022, compared to 91.9% in the least deprived areas.
Jackie Baillie – “Nearly all? Nearly!? It won’t do!”
Meanwhile in England:
Thousands of children in England facing ‘heartbreaking’ waits for NHS dental care
Then only at the very end, the facts that the public has a right to hear from its taxpayer-funded public service broadcaster, before the drift away from the negative narrative prioritised:
The Scottish government said that more than 95% of the population were registered with an NHS dentist. It added that the dental workforce in Scotland (54 dentists per 100,000 population) was stronger than in England (42 per 100,000 population).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66327813
In November 2020 as scare stories about mass dentist practice closures were everywhere:
I’ve searched and searched.
I can find NO report of a dental business closing anywhere. No doubt there will be some but some businesses, of all kinds, do close for a variety of reasons.
I did find one, above, expanding in the midst of the pandemic.
I can find roughly a zillion stories saying that many dental businesses might have to close unless they get more support from the Scottish Government.
None in Scotland seem to have closed finally during the first wave.
Of course, our NoMedia are full of stories:
In the middle of the BBC report, we read:
Prof Philip Taylor, of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at RCSEd, said that for NHS work the government was “providing very little towards treatment”. Fees are complex and can vary with each patient, but a dentist who fits a new metal crown for a back tooth on the NHS may receive a fee set by government of £80 to £100 – with the patient paying most of that. However, if the work was done privately, the RCSEd said the dentist could charge £300 to £400.
He’s in a well-padded bubble. He doesn’t see what he’s just said.
Read on to the bottom of the BBC report to see that £12 million per month is being paid by the Scottish Government to ‘support the incomes of NHS dental practices.’
So, David McColl?
Headlining in the Herald on January 17 2021:
THE goal of immunising 400,000 Scots a week against Covid could be derailed unless more is done to cut “ridiculous bureaucratic hold ups” that are leading some would-be vaccinators to quit, clinicians have warned.
It turns out ‘clinicians’ is a stretch and it’s only David McColl again. He’s upset about ‘a barrage of paperwork and training modules.’ Here he is in today’s Herald report:
Here he is on 1st November 2020:
Here he is in the Herald on 26th July 2020:
No new up-to-date photo? That was a story where the words ‘only two’ should have been inserted before the word ‘Dentists.’ It was about:
Why is he apparently the only one tearing his hair out sufficiently to want to keep contacting the Herald?
The National, exhibiting it’s ‘journalistic principles’ and willingness to criticise the SNP, shared the photo, in June:
But, further back, in June 2017, journos had a different photo:
McColl claimed:
Voluntary early retirement among Scottish GDPs has doubled in the last two years according to the vice-chair of the Scottish Dental Practice Committee (SDPC).
And the facts told a different story. They had reduced from 79 in the previous year to 69 as he spoke in June 2017:
So, a typically reliable source of the kind the Herald loves and and then expects you to trust.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Personally, my wife had her six-monthly check-up this week, and mine is due next month.
Last year, when I had a tooth that was giving me some discomfort, my dentist, because of my medication, recommended that it should removed in a hospital setting.
This was done shortly afterwards at Hairmyres Hospital. No drama, no sensation whatsoever. First class.
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Typical of the media.
Report from the times yesterday.
‘Sturgeon promise broken as NHS dental fees to rise’
Have they forgotten the rise in inflation?
Being run by the BoE, medicine that Scotland could do without.
My energy bills have risen by a factor of 3 since last year, not forgetting all the other necessities.
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There is no such thing as an “NHS dentist”. There are dentists who qualify at public expense, some of whom deign to undertake dental work covered by their NHS contract, partly paid for by their NHS patients. They are allowed to conduct private dentistry on the same premises. There are others who operate entirely in the private sphere; it would be interesting to know how many.
This is entirely different to the situation with GP’s, who provide free NHS treatment, and cannot undertake private medical services on the same premises.
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Phoned my dentist this morning to get an appointment for a check-up. Got an appointment for Tuesday, 1st August. It was a cancellation but if it had not suited me I was offered an appointment in September which did not seem at all unreasonable.
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Aye, everyone’s registered, but no-one’s being seen.
“As at 30 September 2022, 2.6 million registered patients had seen an NHS dentist within the last two years (50.4% compared to 43.1% in March 2022).”
“In September 2022, children and adults from the most deprived areas were less likely to have seen their dentist within the last two years (55.9% compared to 75.8% for children and 42.7% compared to 53.5% of adults).”
Dental Statistics – NHS registration and Participation (24 January 2023)
That’s 3/4 children in deprived areas not seeing a dentist in 2 years!
And that’s before you look at the wait times. Wonder why the Scottish government doesn’t collect that information…
“For inpatient and day-case treatments, the longest a patient had to wait in 2022 was 146 weeks in NHS Borders, up from 67 weeks in 2019, which was recorded by NHS Tayside”
SNP accused of ‘abandoning NHS dentistry’ amid increased waiting times – The Scotsman (23 January 2023)
BothThat’s information released routinely by the government and through FOI request respectively. Both of these are devoid of statement from David McColl – who, to correct your omission, is not speaking out as individual, but as the chair of the BDA Scottish Dental Practice Committee.
Frankly, anyone can fact check this blog post by calling their dentist and hearing that the next available appointment is months away. Except that if you look in the papers, you’ll find dozens of practices have gone private in the past few months anyway.
There’s simply no benefit to lying about this.
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