Dental board warned about register blunder five years ago
Following the revelation that the Scottish health board had been paying out thousands of pounds of deceased patients in the press yesterday, a retired dentist has announced that the board was warned about problems with the register five years ago.
Yesterday, a report in the Press and Journal revealed that the health board had been paying dentists a monthly sum of up to £4.96 for around 150,000 patients who had either moved practice or passed away; the total sum of money wasted is yet to be calculated but it is expected to stretch into the millions.
Ken Gill, a retired practitioner from the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, said that he had warned the health board about problems with the register back in 2005. When Mr Gill brought up the issue of the register at an interview with the Scottish Dental Practice Board, he was told that it was cheaper and easier to carry on paying dentists per patient than keeping track of patients who have moved on or passed on. Mr Gill said he was very shocked at the time and believed that the idea was flawed; he went on to say that he thought it was ridiculous that there was no system in place to ensure that information about practice registers was kept up-to-date and passed on to the relevant government department.
An investigation is underway into the blunder; yet Mr Gill claims that many people were well aware of the flaws in the system. It is estimated that the additional patients could have cost the NHS around £500,000 per month.
The Scottish Dental Practice Board said they were unable to comment on Mr Gill’s revelations.
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