High street dental costs £28 higher

Health Minister Edwin Poots has revealed that high street dentists received £105.7m in payments from the public purse last year and that the average cost of treatment per patient was £65.89.

But care provided by 38 additional dentists working under Oasis Dental Care - funded through a current £17 million investment in dental healthcare provision and based in offices across Northern Ireland including Londonderry, Strabane, Enniskillen and Omagh - cost just £38 per patient.

Mr Poots revealed the cheaper Oasis costs in response to an Assembly Question tabled by East Londonderry MLA John Dallat.

Back in 2009 it was announced by the former Health Minsiter Michael McGimpsey that Oasis would receive £5.7m per year over three years to provide extra care for 57,000 health service patients, with a possible extension of the contract for an extra two years.

Now Mr Poots has stated that there has been a shortfall in the number of in the numebr of registered patients by about 10k.

“As at March 2012, there were 47,361 patients registered with Oasis Healthcare,” he stated.

He also advised: “The contractual arrangement between the HSCB and Oasis Healthcare is not on an item of service basis. However, based on activity information supplied by Oasis to the BSO during 2011/12 it has been assessed that the cost of dental treatments in 2011/12 was £1.5m (including patient

contributions) and the number of patients that received these treatments during 2011/12 was approximately 39,400. Therefore an estimate of the cost per patient, of dental treatment in 2011/121 has been calculated at £38.”

High street dentists - who also do work for the health service - are far more numerous, treat far more patients and collectively receive far more money per annum as a group.

But Mr Poots has revealed that the average cost of treatments is also far more: £27 is the difference.

“The total amount of money paid to high street dentists1 in 2011/12 was £105.7m (including approximately £18m of patient contributions).

“The total number of patients treated by high street dentists in 2011/12 was 885,024.

“The average cost, per patient, of treatment provided by high street dentists in 2011/12 was £65.89.”

In 2009 Justin Ash, Chief Executive of Oasis Dental Care, said: “We are delighted to have been chosen to be part of this significant boost to the health of the people of Northern Ireland and are delighted to be working in partnership with the Health Minister and the Health and Social Care Board.

“This contract is another resounding endorsement of Oasis Dental Care and our ability to deliver excellent health service dentistry. Plans are already well advanced for the new Oasis practices and we look forward to welcoming new patients from across the province later this year.

“We will ensure that we keep local communities informed of the progress of the building work and when they will be able to register for treatment.”

The then Health Minister Mr McGimpsey claimed: “My officials are working closely with the British Dental Association to achieve a new dental contract for all health service dentists in Northern Ireland, and I look forward to a successful conclusion to this process.

“However, there are access problems now that I have to address, and I am delighted that Oasis will work with us on this.

“I am confident that this initiative will greatly ease the current access problems, but my officials will continue to monitor the situation, and we shall take further action as is necessary to ensure that the general public have access to a health service dentist.”