The general dental services contract should be scrapped and all NHS dentistry should be made part of a salaried service, according to Dr Anthony Halperin, Chair of the Patients Association.

Writing in The Times on October 17, Dr Halperin – a private dentist practising in Wimpole Street and an adviser to AXA Insurance – called for the contract to be scrapped and for NHS dentistry to be made a fully salaried service.

'We have evidence that dentists are not doing the necessary work they are contracted to do under the NHS... It is not that dentists are out to take advantage of the patient but they have to reach government-set targets,' he said. 'The contract should be scrapped and we should start again.'

'I believe it should be a fully salaried service with subsidiary payments by patients for more complex treatment. But I can see no solution because health minister Ann Keen has said the contract is not going to be altered.'

In an accompanying article, printed next to Dr Halperin's, Chief Dental Officer Barry Cockcroft said, 'We will need to make minor changes to the contract but first we need to give it time to settle down.

'PCTs are investing substantial sums of money and we are expecting to see positive changes early next year.'

If dentists were not providing the courses of treatment specified in their contracts it was up to PCTs to do something about it, he added.

'Criticism of the new contract comes not so much from dentists, but from people who have a vested interest in private practices that are threatened by a strong local NHS,' he said.