Patients struggle after dentist goes private

The practice is going private from 1 April

Patients have raised concerns as to whether they will be able to afford to go to a dental practice after it said it was going private.

Seaham Smiles in County Durham will be handing back its NHS contract at the end of March.

The practice said it had not been an "easy" decision but that it was "reluctantly" stopping its provision due to funding issues.

Child membership is now priced from £7 per month, with treatment fees on top. An examination for adults without membership now costs £75.

Mother-of-two Toni Mccourt said she was unable to afford her own dental treatment, but that she would keep her two children at the practice.

“I’ve been with that dentist all my life but I don’t have one now," she explained.

"I can’t afford to pay for all of us."

A former patient, who did not give their name, said they now had to travel to Sunderland for treatment.

“It was stressful because it was four of us and my mother who were kicked out at the same time, so we were ringing round every practice,” they said.

But Bill Johnson decided to stay and pay the monthly membership fee.

He said: “There is no real incentive to stay in the NHS. I understand why they have done it – it’s down to the government to supply what we pay for.”

Improving quality

Seaham Smiles said it had become “increasingly difficult” to provide an appropriate level of care under current NHS funding.

It said its priority was to improve its quality of care by reducing waiting times, and offering longer appointments with more choice.

Grahame Morris, the Labour MP for Easington, said the government needed to urgently intervene to protect the industry and patients.

He said it needed to create an NHS work visa to increase the number of dentists.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the new Dental Recovery Plan would create an additional 2.5 million appointments over the next 12 months.

They said it had invested more than £3bn per year to support NHS dentistry, and that about 1.7 million more adults, and 800,000 more children, had seen an NHS dentist in 2023 compared to 2022