Patient information: dental problems and who to contact
When being referred to a private service, we outline our following expectations to that Private Healthcare Provider:
GP practices are not trained or contracted to provide dental treatment. This includes problems such as toothache, broken teeth, lost fillings, dental abscesses, or issues with dentures, braces and medication queries in line with dental treatments.
If you have a dental problem, please contact:
- Your own Dentist (NHS or Private) in the first instance – they have an ethical duty to provide advice and emergency care for their patients, including outside normal hours.
- If you do not have a dentist or cannot contact your usual dentist:
NHS 111 (by phone or online) for urgent dental advice and details of local emergency dental services. - Check the NHS website for local NHS dentists and dental access centres: www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/
Private healthcare referrals
When being referred to a private service, we outline our following expectations to that Private Healthcare Provider:
- It is the responsibility of the private healthcare provider to perform any investigations that are deemed necessary for you, the patient, and to fully inform you, the patient, of the results of these investigations.
- It is the responsibility of the private healthcare provide to perform any post-operative care that you, the patient, should require, such as a change of dressing or ongoing dressings, for up to four weeks following your operation. Any infection that you may develop following your procedure can then be dealt with immediately.
- It is the responsibility of the private healthcare provider to issue you, the patient, with a prescription for any new medication, to organise any treatment for you and to arrange any follow up’s, should they be needed.
- We, Staunton and Corse Surgery, will consider on a case-by-case basis, taking on the responsibility for repeat prescriptions of new medications, when these are medications that are normally prescribed in primary care, and that you, the patient, has demonstrated to the private healthcare provider that you are tolerating them.
- It is practice policy to decline all shared care requests from private providers for ADHD monitoring and medication requests and gender identity treatments. This is the responsibility of the private provider.
- All queries that we, Staunton and Corse Surgery, take from you, the patient, about any of the information received from the private healthcare provider will be re-directed directly to them.
In the event that these expectations are not acceptable to you, we are happy to refer you to an NHS Service.