Rishi Sunak has today scrapped his pledge to charge people for missing NHS appointments – which formed part of his solution for saving NHS dentistry.
The new Prime Minister pledged to implement a £10 fine for those who fail to attend appointments within the health service.
However today, a No 10 spokeswoman said: ‘The PM wants to deliver a stronger NHS and the sentiment remains that people should not be missing their appointments and taking up NHS time.
‘But we have listened to GPs and health leaders, and have acknowledged that now is not the right time to take this policy forward.’
It is currently unclear whether this applies to dentistry.
In August, Sunak first revealed the measure during his leadership bid to succeed Boris Johnson. When asked how he would fix NHS dentistry, he said: ‘If we’re going to get to grips with this and make sure that there is money for NHS dentistry we just have to be bolder about reforming the NHS to get more efficiency out of it.
Bit radical
‘Money’s not enough. We need to reform things so we can get more efficiency and invest in things like dentistry.
‘I’ll give you one example of something that I’m prepared to do, which is a bit bold, it is a bit radical, and not everyone will love it. That’s tackling missed appointments
‘We have over ten million missed appointments every year and it’s not just GPs. At the same time, we’ve got lots of people sitting there anxiously waiting for treatment.
‘And I’ve said that’s not acceptable.’
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