Lemming of the BDA

More horror stories from the NHS dental service, from the Times of London:

Health service dentists have been forced to go on holiday or spend time on the golf course this month despite millions of patients being denied dental care.

Many have fulfilled their annual work quotas allotted by the National Health Service and have been turning patients away because they are not paid to do extra work. This is despite the fact that more than 7m people in Britain are unable to find an NHS dentist.

Patients have been told they must either pay privately or return in April when the new work year begins. People suffering from toothache have been advised to go to hospital.

Or they could just get the pliers out.  

Full story.

Comments

Episiarch | March 31, 2008, 10:36am | #

I wasn't aware that limeys went to dentists. Ever.

Cracker's Boy | March 31, 2008, 10:40am | #

Michael Moore could fix that.

CB

lunchstealer | March 31, 2008, 10:48am | #

It's a man's life in the British Dental Association!

Warty | March 31, 2008, 10:52am | #

An entire nation of VA hospitals.

Colin | March 31, 2008, 10:53am | #

I'm against national health care, but I don't think you can induce that all such systems are as bad as the British one.

When I lived in Prague, I had no problem getting a dentist, or a doctor.

The problem was the cost of the insurance. I was paying for insurance roughly what I pay here in the US, but doctors were only getting paid about $200 per month, and there was no fear of malpractice suits.

If the same system were applied here, one can only imagine the costs.

TallDave | March 31, 2008, 10:53am | #

I've heard quite a few horror stories from people who come to the U.S. and are shocked by the difference in quality. A lot of UK dentists simply tell their patients to live with conditions that would require emergency attention here.

When the government assigns you work instead you being forced to compete for customers, the incentive to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction is close to nil.

T | March 31, 2008, 11:19am | #

Hmm. So I can't blame the British teeth entirely on the poor chavs that have them. The NHS shares a large part of the blame as well. That's good to know.

Abdul | March 31, 2008, 11:23am | #

Now we know why the British famous for keeping a stiff upper lip. It's because the bureaucracy forces them to.

Invisible Finger | March 31, 2008, 11:50am | #

Poor Flopsy's dead and never called me Mother!

Zero the Hero | March 31, 2008, 12:03pm | #

I know nationalized health care is bad and all, but is this really the best example of why? It says in the quote that the new work year starts in April. It's March 31st, and I doubt every single dentist met their quota for the year. I'm pretty sure the people who can't get one can afford to wait, and if not, there's the hospital.

Sam Grove | March 31, 2008, 12:04pm | #

Michael Moore could fix that.

by taking them to Cuba.

R C Dean | March 31, 2008, 12:28pm | #

I know nationalized health care is bad and all, but is this really the best example of why?

You mean it isn't good enough?

sam | March 31, 2008, 12:31pm | #

And did those teeth, in ancient times, walk upon England's mountains green?

TallDave | March 31, 2008, 1:37pm | #

I know nationalized health care is bad and all,

Can we do this badly in America, too?

Yes We Can!

Marcvs | March 31, 2008, 1:39pm | #

I'm pretty sure the people who can't get one can afford to wait, and if not, there's the hospital.

Thanks for dictating to people what they can and can't do. That is precisely the problem with nationalized health care in the first place: people like you thinking they know what's best for other people.

Robert Adamson | March 31, 2008, 3:24pm | #

Not that anyone cares, but the name of the Newspaper is just The Times. The London part went long ago.

Bronwyn | March 31, 2008, 3:41pm | #

Oh, sure. You can wait. Yep, if you have an abscess you can wait while the infection finds its way into your bloodstream and maybe even into your brain. Yes, toothaches can lead to death.

Sure, you can go to a hospital for that abscess, but they'll not know what to do with you - and may even decline to see you, since they're not dentists. They may, if you're lucky, give you an antibiotic, but it's probably going to be the wrong antibiotic.

So, while you wait for a dentist to accept you for an appointment, you can load up on an antibiotic that will do nothing but destroy the floral balance of your system while your risk of a brain infection increases daily.

Yeah Zero, it's perfectly reasonable to require emergent dental cases to wait.

I'm not making this up - this was the experience of a close family member right here in the USofA. It's how bad it can get when you get that abscess on a holiday weekend and have to wait for the dentist offices to reopen. How much worse must it be to be forced - by the government, no less - to wait even longer!

Shawn Levasseur | March 31, 2008, 4:19pm | #

Lunchstealer:

I warned you, no, I warned you about the slogan, right. That's the end. Stop the blog! Stop it.

hamilton | March 31, 2008, 5:26pm | #

It's a man's life taking your clothes off in public.