British Healthcare Has No Teeth

(CBS)  One of the things we pride ourselves on in this country is the National Health Service - medical care free for everyone. If you need treatment in Britain the good old NHS will never ask you for a cent. You won't need private insurance however poor you are.

When they started the NHS, just after the second world war, the service covered doctors and dentists. But somehow, down the years, the dentists were allowed to slip away in very large numbers. Today it is very hard indeed to find a National Health Dentist in Britain. Thousands of dentists have switched to practising privately. And that means you have to pay through the nose every time you open your mouth.

But, like I say, we pride ourselves on the National Health Service – even though it's a desperate struggle to find a dentist still signed up for free care.

A few weeks back they appointed a brand new National Health Dentist – just one – in the town of Carmathen in West Wales. 600 people queued up in pouring rain to try to register. But the man with the drill was only allowed to take on 300 patients. There was chaos. Almost a riot. The three hundred people who were turned away turned nasty, and started bombarding the surgery with abuse. The authorities deemed it should never be allowed to happen again.

Well it won't. Because today I bring you news of a fresh appointment to Britain's ailing National Health Dentistry Service. This new practitioner will also begin work in the Carmathen area of Wales this Winter. It ought to be extremely good news for those disappointed toothachers who were turned away after the last fiasco. But for one thing. In order to avoid a stampede of people with cavities they can't afford to fill, the authorities have come up with a simple but highly effective plan. This time they are not going to announce precisely where the new dentist will be working, or what his name is. Sshhh. It's a secret.

In Britain today tooth is sometimes stranger than fiction.
By Ed Boyle