NHS dental patients in Worcestershire have paid out more than £1 million in unnecessary fees, according to new figures.

They come amid claims that NHS dentists are insisting patients make follow-up appointments for treatment rather than treating them on the spot.

The practice is in breach of NHS guidelines – which state that no patient should be called back within three months unless for clinical reasons, lead to fewer available appointment times and result in millions of pounds of unnecessary charges. Acc-ording to new figures, more than 17 per cent of NHS dental patients in Worcestershire returned for treatment within three months of their original appointment.

Health bosses in Worcestershire say the statistics are misleading and do not take into account patients who have to go back for emergency treatment or people who dem-and to be seen again.

The figures gained from the NHS information centre by the Conservatives show that more than 400,000 courses of treatment were administered by county NHS dentists during 2008/09.

The Conservatives claim 73,260 were unnecessary because the patient was called back within three months, at a cost of £1,256,196 to them in fees.

But Dr Jonathan Leach, NHS Worcestershire’s medical director and director of primary care, said: “These figures do not differentiate between instances where a patient has been called back for treatment by their dentist, and when a patient re-attends out of their own choice.

“There are also perfectly acceptable clinical reasons where a patient might re-attend within the three months, such as when single visit emergency treatment is correctly followed by the start of a full course of treatment.

“We closely monitor the performance of all of our dentists and if we believe that patients were being called back unnecessarily then we would certainly launch an investigation.”

Dr Leach said the trust was currently developing a policy to look more closely at the issue.

He said: “New NHS dental contracts now include performance measures around patient satisfaction and re-attendance rates.

“We are also in the process of appointing an independent dental adviser who will play an important role in monitoring call backs.”

There are currenty 51,000 NHS dental places available in Worcestershire.