NICOLA Sturgeon has been warned that her plans to abolish NHS dentistry charges could lead to more patients taking up private treatment and may end up being “counter-productive”.
The SNP manifesto included a commitment to scrap NHS dentistry charges in the next parliament if re-elected to power.
But Labour leader Anas Sarwar, himself a former NHS dentist, has issued a warning over the policy despite backing the principle of abolishing NHS dentistry charges.
He said: “I am happy to have a debate with any parliamentarian about NHS dentistry and the progress, or lack of it made in the last 10 years or more.
“What I would caution is let’s see the detail because the devil is in the detail.
“What risks happening is, and this has happened too many times under this government already, is you reduce the number of treatments that are available on the NHS and reduce the number of treatment options you have on the NHS.
READ MORE: SNP vows to abolish all NHS dentistry charges if re-elected
“You are pushing more people to getting private treatments rather than NHS treatments and then you will say, ‘okay, we will give NHS treatments free’.
“I think we need to see the detail of what this policy means in practice before we can make wider comment on whether it is fit for purpose or not.”
Mr Sarwar added that while he backs the principle of healthcare being free at the point of use, the policy could be “counter-productive” and “actually gaming the system” if it means “pushing more and more patients to private treatments because you’re reducing the number of treatments available on the NHS”.
He added: “We have seen that already with orthodontics under this government, we’ve seen that already with some of the treatments that are available in upfront general dentistry rather than specialist dentistry.”
The Scottish Labour leader also urged caution over the possibility that the renumeration package for individual dentists could mean that “NHS dentists don’t then offer those treatments”, adding that “patients are forced to go private”.
He added: “We saw that happen during the pandemic when more and more patients were pushed towards private dentistry because NHS dentistry was not sustainable through the pandemic because of what the fee per item was and the amount of time they were having to spend around considerations around infection control and PPE and how many patients they could actually see in one day.
READ MORE: Coronavirus Scotland: NHS dentistry facing crisis
“I will reserve judgement until I see detail but if their record is anything to go by, I think the devil will be in that detail.”
The SNP said its policy, which would begin with services for care experienced young people will cost around £75 million and is estimated to increase to £100 million due to the expect additional uptake once costs are removed.
When she announced the policy, Ms Sturgeon said: “We will start the roll-out with care experienced people between the ages of 18 and 26 - and complete the roll-out over the course of the parliament.
“As we do this, we will engage with the British Dental Association and others to help shape a reformed funding arrangement to make their services sustainable for the long-term.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel