NHS dental charges to rise in England

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Published: Saturday, 05 March 2011 12:26
Written by News Editor
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Regulations have been laid to increase NHS dental charges in England from 1 April 2011. The charge for a band one course of treatment will increase by 50p from £16.50 to £17. For a band 2 course of treatment it will increase by £1.40 from £45.60 to £47. The charge for a band 3 course of treatment will increase by £6 from £198 to £204. These fees are deducted from NHS payments to dentists, so the rise is a further increase of taxation of patients who pay for their NHS dental treatment.


Minister for Health, Simon Burns said: ‘Dental charges represent an important contribution to the overall cost of dental services. The exact amount raised will be dependent upon the level and type of primary dental care services commissioned by primary care trusts and the proportion of charge paying patients who attend dentists and the level of treatment they require.’
There will also be an increase in the prescription charge of 20 pence from £7.20 to £7.40 for each quantity of a drug or appliance dispensed. The cost of a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) will rise to £29.10 for a three month certificate. The cost of the annual certificate will remain at £104.
The Welsh Assembly Government earlier announced that dental charges in Wales would be frozen at their 2006 levels. The Scottish Government has announced that from this April there will be no prescription charges, although dental charges remain at 80% of treatment costs. 800x600 Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt;"Times New Roman","serif";}Minister for Health, Simon Burns said: ‘Dental charges represent an important contribution to the overall cost of dental services. The exact amount raised will be dependent upon the level and type of primary dental care services commissioned by primary care trusts and the proportion of charge paying patients who attend dentists and the level of treatment they require.’ 
There will also be an increase in the prescription charge of 20 pence from £7.20 to £7.40 for each quantity of a drug or appliance dispensed. The cost of a prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) will rise to £29.10 for a three month certificate. The cost of the annual certificate will remain at £104.
The Welsh Assembly Government earlier announced that dental charges in Wales would be frozen at their 2006 levels. The Scottish Government has announced that from this April there will be no prescription charges, although dental charges remain at 80% of treatment costs.		
		
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