Can an NHS dentist run out of budget?

[Willhire89]

Email this morning which states there's no more money but you can come back after April 1

Dear Patient,

NHS Treatment Availability

Each dental practice is allocated a fixed amount of NHS funding to provide services during
each financial year. Due to high demand at our practice, we are currently operating at full
NHS capacity.

To ensure continuity of care, a limited amount of NHS funding has been reserved for:?

Patients currently undergoing treatment
Children
Patients who are exempt from paying NHS fees
Dental emergencies
For NHS purposes, dental emergencies are defined as severe pain, swelling, or bleeding.

The following options are available to you:
1. Non-urgent NHS treatment
Non-urgent NHS care may need to be deferred until 1st April, when normal NHS
services are expected to resume. Alternatively, you may choose to continue your
treatment under our private concessionary price plan, which has been designed to
be economically priced. Please see fee comparison below.

2. Treatment at a sister practice
We can offer NHS appointments at one of our sister practices where NHS capacity is
still available:

Two I have redacted

3. Exceptional circumstances

If you are physically unable to attend one of our sister practices, we may be able to
offer treatment at your usual practice under exceptional circumstances. In these
cases, the NHS claim would be processed remotely by one of our sister practices.
Please contact us for further information.


We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to reassure you that we
always act with your best interests in mind.


NHS Fees

Private Concessionary Fees

Band 1

£27.40

Band 1

£32.00

Band 2

£75.30

Band 2

£86.60

Band 3

£326.70

Band 3

£375.70

[Bill]

It's not they run out of budget, more they've been paid for X amount of work which they've mostly done so they're ringfencing the remaining for those in particular need.

If you'd been paid for Y hours a year you wouldn't (I'm assuming) do more than that out of the kindness of your heart.

[Willhire89]

Is that how it works though?

I envisaged that they have to fill out a form that states Mr ABC had to have X non routine treatment and if it is eligible they get paid

There will be a fixed per capita budget for routine checks etc I accept that

[Gary29]

I've just experienced similar with my dentist. I've been with them on the NHS for years and years.

Had a routine check up booked in for this month (booked 12 months ago!) and they called a few weeks ago to say they wouldn't be able to carry out the check up, I could pay £50 for the privilege though.

Alternatively they said I could call back in April to see if they can do it via the NHS then?

[AlfaPapa]

Dental contracts are paid based on the delivery of an agreed volume of units of care (UDA). The volume of these in each contract is determined by a number of things, like previous year activity, demand and changes to population. Most importantly how much money each NHS Commissioning area has to spend... and this year (2025/26) is the first year the commissioners have been instructed to not overspend.

In previous years additional activity was often funded without question. This year it is not.

Providers of all NHS care are being instructed to manage within the volume they have been commissioned to deliver (including hospitals). The result being the waiting times for most services will increase.