Patients could face fines for missing dental appointments

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The British Dental Association has warned against missed appointments, saying that other patients are missing out on NHS dental care as a result of millions of missed dental appointments in the UK.

Research conducted by the BDA found that the average NHS dentist could fill two weeks’ worth of appointments with missed appointments over the course of a year. It is estimated that there are more than 3.5 million missed appointments in the UK every year.

In the past, dentists were allowed to charge for missed appointments, but this was abolished in 2006 and many dentists have subsequently seen an increase in the number of patients missing appointments.

John Milne, Chairman of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee, said that in some cases missing an appointment is unavoidable and dentists understand this; however, the recent research has found that the number of missed appointments is significant and some patients are missing out on NHS care as a result of other patients missing appointments. Dr Milne said that many dentists now use a range of media to contact their patients to remind them about appointments and said that it was disappointing for the number of missed appointments to be so vast.

Milne said that missed appointments waste dentists’ time, as well as taxpayers’ money. The British Dental Association has now suggested that the government reconsider bringing back charges for missed dental appointments; it is believed that the reintroduction of charges would deter patients from missing appointments and encourage them to cancel them well in advance if they cannot attend.

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