Calls for end to dental treatment ‘lottery’

The Patients Association (PA) has called for an end to what it claims to be a system of healthcare administration that results in a “postcode lottery” for people living in the UK.

A report from the PA focussing on the state of Britain’s dental services has suggested that the variation in standards within the NHS reflects the wider issues of unbalanced service provision nationwide.

The report, which is entitled ‘The New Dental Contract – Full of Holes and Causing Pain’, claims that the quality of dental care a person living in the UK can expect depends to an unacceptable degree upon which primary care trust (PCT) they are covered by.

In response to its own research, the PA called on the government to: “Remove the postcode lottery for dental patients, which results from weak commissioning by some PCTs.”

A report from the Citizens Advice charity recently suggested that there are millions of people around the country struggling to find an NHS dentist who will treat them.