THE owner of a West Belfast dental practice says thousands of patients have been removed from the register without their knowledge.
Paul Kane is owner of Sliabh Mór Dental Care in the Kennedy Centre. He says new changes which came into effect in December have left thousands of patients across Belfast without a dentist. It affects patients who have not attended an appointment with their dentist in 24 months, dating back to March 2023.
"Before Covid, dental practices were told about patients who had not been to their dentist in two years informing them that they would be taken off the register," explained Paul. "It meant that we could get in touch with them to let them know.
"In December, the policy changed and many patients who had not been to the dentist in two years were removed off the register. It was an NHS across the board decision.
"For ourselves, we have lost around 2,500 patients. The thing for me is that patients do not know they have been removed. Now, the job has been left with us rather than the government to write to everyone and tell them."
Paul says the change has not been publicly advertised, meaning thousands of patients have been left without a dentist.
"I think it is an archaic policy which is not necessary for anything other than the government to save money," he added. "By taking patients off your books, the government is not paying the money to dental practices every month for having the patients registered.
"Thousands of patients have been left without a practice and they simply are not aware.
"Patients are registered with their GP for life, yet for some reason dentists are different.
"If you have general good oral hygiene, I totally get the fact that many patients will not have been to the dentist, especially during Covid and its knock-on effect.
"I believe the policy should be scrapped and if you are a NHS patient and are registered to a practice, that should be it.
"We have around 5-6,000 patients. I think we are one of the biggest NHS practices in the country. Everyone is entitled to NHS care, yet there are more people in West Belfast not registered with a dentist than ever before."
