NHS 和私人牙科必须合作减少口腔健康不平等

连续两天，我对英国牙科目前正在发生的事情有两种截然不同的看法。

There are two very different worlds in UK dentistry at the moment. On one hand, you have the NHS, which is struggling to meet demand and keep dentists in the service. On the other hand, you have private dentistry, which is thriving and setting new standards of care.

目前英国牙科存在两个截然不同的世界。一方面，国民医疗服务体系（NHS）正在努力满足需求并保持牙医的服务。另一方面，私人牙科正在蓬勃发展并设定了新的护理标准。

This division is becoming increasingly stark, and it's leaving many people behind. Those who can't afford private dentistry are being forced to wait longer for treatment, or go without altogether. And this is having a devastating impact on their oral health.

这种分歧变得越来越明显，许多人被抛在了后面。那些无力承担私人牙科费用的人被迫等待更长时间才能接受治疗，或者干脆放弃治疗。这对他们的口腔健康产生了毁灭性的影响。

I saw this firsthand recently when I met a hygienist who works for the special care and community dental services. She was struggling with her work, but not because she was being overwhelmed with demand for her services. Quite the opposite, in fact.

最近，当我遇到一位为特殊护理和社区牙科服务工作的卫生员时，我亲眼目睹了这一点。她的工作很困难，但这并不是因为她对服务的需求不堪重负。事实上恰恰相反。

She was concerned about the white spaces that had entered their appointment book. It's easy to equate access issues with a lack of resources, but it's a far more complicated picture, with social deprivation and education playing a part. In this case, the challenge for accessing this hygienist lay in the referral pathway and the lack of local NHS dentists available to see and refer suitable patients to her service. The failure of the system was clearly taking its toll, as was the frustration at her inability to provide care to people who so desperately need it.

她担心预约簿中出现空白。人们很容易将获取问题与缺乏资源等同起来，但实际情况要复杂得多，社会剥夺和教育也是其中的一部分。在这种情况下，联系这位卫生员的挑战在于转诊途径，以及当地缺乏 NHS 牙医来看诊并将合适的患者转介给她的服务。该系统的失败显然造成了损失，她因无法为迫切需要的人提供护理而感到沮丧。

Just 24 hours later, I was in London attending the Private Dentistry Awards. You couldn't help but be struck by the buzz, the energy, and the sense of pride among all attendees as they received public acknowledgment for the incredible work they do in their own communities.

仅仅 24 小时后，我就在伦敦参加私人牙科奖颁奖典礼。当所有与会者因在自己的社区所做的令人难以置信的工作而获得公众认可时，您会情不自禁地被所有与会者的喧嚣、活力和自豪感所震撼。

Of course, the biggest outpouring of joy was from those declared winners on the night, but just being among the nominees is an amazing achievement that validates all the hard work being done across the UK by these dental teams.

当然，最大的喜悦来自当晚宣布的获奖者，但仅仅成为提名者之一就是一项了不起的成就，验证了这些牙科团队在英国各地所做的所有辛勤工作。

The contrast between the two worlds could not have been starker. Of course, I'm delighted at the success of the private dentistry sector as it is providing the inspiration and motivation to attract people to, and keep them in, the profession.

这两个世界之间的对比再明显不过了。当然，我对私营牙科行业的成功感到高兴，因为它提供了灵感和动力来吸引人们并让他们留在这个行业。

From the hundreds of dentists that my team and I have helped, I know that more money is rarely the motivation for ‘going private’. The emphasis consistently is on providing the high quality of patient care that gets recognized by patients and judging panels alike.

从我和我的团队帮助过的数百名牙医中，我知道更多的钱很少是“私有化”的动机。始终强调提供高质量的患者护理，并获得患者和评审团的认可。

That delight does not stop me becoming increasingly worried about those in society that are being left behind by the continuing shift away from the NHS. The people who should be able to be seen by the hygienist who was the inspiration for this column, and my belief is that everyone in that room at the Private Dentistry Awards shares such concerns.

这种喜悦并没有阻止我越来越担心社会上那些因持续脱离国民医疗服务体系而被抛在后面的人。这些人应该能够被卫生员看到，他是本专栏的灵感来源，我相信私人牙科奖现场的每个人都有这样的担忧。

When speaking about his plans to reform the wider NHS, Wes Streeting has repeatedly spoken of the need for a more pragmatic constructive relationship between the private and public sectors to improve health outcomes. In that spirit, let's hope independent dental care providers and the NHS can be encouraged to find innovative ways of collaborating to reduce rather than widen oral health inequality.

在谈到改革更广泛的国民医疗服务体系（NHS）的计划时，韦斯·斯特里廷多次谈到私营部门和公共部门之间需要建立更务实的建设性关系，以改善健康状况。本着这种精神，我们希望能够鼓励独立牙科护理提供者和 NHS 找到创新的合作方式，以减少而不是扩大口腔健康不平等。