Hacker News Reader

Comment by 10dpd | Hacker News Reader

I don't know why this is being downvoted, this is completely accurate for the English NHS where the UDA system is used (Northern Ireland and Scotland have a different fee per item system).

Many English NHS dentists encourage patients to return for multiple treatments instead of doing all the work in one treatment.

View on HN

I'm not sure what you mean, things are charged by the course, no?

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/AboutNHSservices/dentists/Pages...

>You will not be charged for individual items within a course of treatment. Depending on what you need to have done, you should only ever be asked to pay one charge for each complete course of treatment, even if you need to visit your dentist more than once to finish it. A course of treatment is finished when your dentist considers good oral health has been achieved.

Have I misunderstood what you meant?

I'm guessing that was GPs point, that receptionists and doctors will happily fail to inform patients of this, and rather make separately charged appointments.

While I haven't been to the dentist yet, after living in UK for a year I can testify that the bar for cheating or misleading customers is very low.

As an example, taxi drivers usually pick a longer route than necessary, sometimes driving around the whole city. Especially if they perceive that you are not local.

Odd, I've never experienced anything like that with the NHS, nor heard of our from anyone I know. There will be a full record of your treatment so this sounds like a very risky thing on the part of the practice.

I thought it might be that many practices are both NHS and private and you can have some things covered but get some private work done at the same time.

I can't comment on the taxis much but all will be regulated with the local council so that would be a point to start a complaint. My only note is that some cities like Liverpool or Manchester can have major congestion which needs avoiding, as well as (particularly on Liverpool) seemingly insane one way systems.

Uber and some other local versions send you a receipt with a map of the route taken which you could complain with.

Consumer protection laws are pretty strong here. I can dig out mode specifics if it'd help.

Yes, that was exactly my point. And you are right abut the bar being very low! It drives me crazy

A record of the work done will be on file, have you taken this to the CQC or regulatory body?

I appreciate the onus is on me to provide evidence, and you've perhaps interpreted my comments as personal experiences only. I was referring to of cases of people I know - at least 3 instances this year alone - and I was not saying that every practice overcharges everyone.

However I myself have not been ripped off by an NHS dentist - mainly because I am aware of the bands. I would certainly take it further if they tried to.

I guess I'm finding it just surprising, I've never experienced anything like that, nor have I ever heard of it from anyone I know. I know plenty of people inside the NHS too, as well as simply many people who will have used these services. I'd have expected to see more problems if there really was a "very low bar for cheating customers".

There are regulatory bodies specifically for dentistry as well as for the NHS and sales and advertising. I would heavily suggest that they report this, there seems to be places to do so and I consider this an extremely important issue to solve if it's happening.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that your friends experiences are so vastly different from my friends.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com