Waltham Dentist loses NHS contract after 50 years - but wants to reassure patients

A dentist practice in Waltham has had its NHS contract terminated after 50 years - but wants to put its customers' minds at ease.

Like many other practices in the nation, Waltham Dentist Practice says that the Covid-19 pandemic meant that they were unable to hit the targets to meet the NHS contract demands, along with dealing with a shortage of staff in the area.

Despite the NHS contract being cut, a spokesperson for the Waltham Dentist Practice has said that it will give free checkups to under fives and try to keep costs down as much as possible despite the loss of its contract. Concerned that patients may not have the full story, assistant manager Mandy Jones wanted to reassure them and explain why the contract had been terminated.

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In a statement, the practice said: "We realise that there are some rumours going around as to why we are no longer offering NHS dental care and we feel that we must clarify this sudden change.

"Since Covid we were unable to meet a proportion of our activity targets due to lockdown, cancellations and a shortage of available staff in our area. As we did not fully meet our targets we were obliged to return a significant proportion of the payments we received from NHS England. They call this clawback.

"Despite having an agreement in place between a local solicitor we appointed and the NHS commissioning team as to how and when we would repay this, last Friday we received an email from the Dental Commissioning team for Yorkshire and Humber informing us simply that they prefer to terminate our NHS contracts and begin reclaiming the payments immediately."

"We paid for a local solicitor’s help to persuade the NHS commissioning team to keep the contracts in place and stick to our original repayment agreement rather than stopping all of our payments but they preferred to terminate our contracts and recover all funds immediately, making it impossible for us to continue providing NHS dentistry and instead forcing us to go fully private to preserve jobs for our staff and preserve access to dental care for our patients. Even though we are now private, we have set our prices to be as affordable as possible while allowing us to continue paying our staff, labs and bills."

"We are also working with Tabeo to offer financing to patients who need help with payments. Our checkup fee remains the same as it was on the NHS and we still endeavour to see patients with urgent needs within 24 hours, Monday to Friday. If we were greedy we would have gone private a long time ago but we always remained a 99% NHS practice and dedicated our time and efforts to the NHS. If the NHS commissioning team change their mind and keep our contracts in place, we will return to NHS dentistry immediately."

After misinformation was spread that a practice could only lose a contract for malpractice, Ms Jones explained that if that were the case, the practice would have to be completely shut down—but Waltham Dentist Practice is still open for business.

"It's hard for people to understand sometimes what NHS contracts involve. You probably know the with the state of the NHS in the country and dentistry has been difficult for years. We've been trying to recruit a dentist in this area, and if you speak to other practices in the area, it's the same situation. We can't get a dentist. They don't want to work for the NHS, they particuarly don't want to live in this area. We've been finding it very, very difficult."

Many children in the area are patients of the practice, which would be a worry for both practitioners and parents; Waltham Dentist Practice's priority is to ensure that people can still get dental care. Mandy has been contacting other practices in the area to see if there is any availability to take on some of the children on their books, but they are maintaining the NHS prices - for now.

"[The owners] are trying to keep the costs as low for customers as we can at the moment. We've decided to see all children five and under free of charge - we don't want [parents] to stop bringing them in because its so important, check up for children are still £12. Check ups are still 25.80, which is still NHS prices, some places are charging over £100. We want to provide a service. We don't want people to stop coming to the dentist."

The Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board said in a statement that it was a decision not taken lightly, and added that it is also helping patients who may be affected by the change.

It said: “It would not be appropriate to go into detail, however the ICB has not taken the decision to terminate the contract with Waltham Dentist Practice lightly. Given the national and regional shortage of NHS dentistry, we appreciate the impact this decision will have on patients."

“We are engaging with other dental practices in the area to find solutions for NHS patients to access treatment with alternative providers. Patients will be informed as soon as details are confirmed."

“In the meantime, anyone with an urgent dental need should contact NHS 111 and follow the options for dental care in order to be assessed via telephone and assisted to book an urgent appointment, if clinically appropriate.”