Update to nhs patients

As of April 2026, the way we are able to deliver NHS dentistry is changing. The government have put more focus on urgent care and have set a mandatory target that must be met by the end of the financial year. We as a practice are not receiving any extra funding to support us through this, but it will mean that we will run out of funding for our NHS contract earlier than planned if we carry on practicing as we have done before.

This means that from April 2026 we will be looking at every NHS patient recall and using NICE guidelines to determine the correct recall time for each patient. The guidance can be found here for your reference https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg19

Going forward the shorter 3 month or 6 months NHS recalls will only be offered to patients where their dentist at Calm considers it clinically justified. 

This means that for the majority of patients we will be increasing recall periods, we understand that this can be frustrating for many patients who are used to the routine of 6 monthly recalls however please be reassured that should any emergency issues arise in-between check ups NHS patients will continue to have access to an NHS emergency appointment where we will be able to focus on the emergency problem.  Please understand that this will not be a check up and we will only be able to deal with the immediate issue. For any routine work we need to conduct a clinical examination beforehand, and this is charged separately, as per the NHS contract. For example, if an NHS patient attends for an emergency appointment outside of the routine check up, this will be a separate charge that is usually paid on the day of the urgent appointment. If more definitive treatment is required to address the same problem, this is charged separately, even if it is for the same issue.

At Calm we value our capacity to offer quality NHS care, we do however have to work to the limited constraints of the relatively small NHS contract that has been offered to us. To this end we hope our NHS patients will work with us to adjust to this shift in NHS provision therefore allowing us to continue to offer NHS treatment at Calm for the foreseeable future.

Best regards,

Dr. Liam Wilson

Principal Dentist