Sir, recently I had a query regarding the strength of a fluoride supplement on an NHS dental FP10. The telephone number of the dentist was not printed on the form. The dentist was in a neighbouring PCT area. I searched in the yellow pages, an out of date PCT list of dentists and finally had to call a directory enquiry firm to obtain the telephone number. This took me time and energy as well as the cost of the directory enquiry. The matter was eventually resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

I therefore carried out an audit of my NHS dental forms. I report the findings (Table 1) of my audit about the missing telephone numbers at the bottom of the dental NHS prescriptions – FPI0D forms. The sample size for January 2007 was 37.

Table 1 Results
Full size table

Virtually all general medical practitioner prescriptions bear a telephone number at the bottom of the NHS form. I wish for our dental colleagues to do the same and include their practice telephone number on their prescription forms. I appreciate it may be the job of the NHS printers.