THE chancellor has been accused of spurning the National Health Service by paying hundreds of pounds for routine dental work to a private dentist known for his celebrity clients.

Gordon Brown had root canal work done by Mervyn Druian, who runs a surgery in north London. He charges up to £650 for the procedure, compared with a standard NHS cost of £42.

Brown’s use of private dentistry is likely to bring charges of hypocrisy. Before the 2005 election he had accused the Conservatives of trying to “walk away” from the NHS and “[tear] up what has been a 50-year national consensus”.

His choice has angered critics who blame Labour for the virtual disappearance of NHS dentistry in large parts of the country, with claims that more than 1m people have lost dental cover in the past year alone.

“The Treasury is not investing enough in NHS dentists but when they need the service themselves they opt to go privately,” said Katherine Murphy, communications director of The Patients Association. “This is sending out the wrong message to the public. There are people who cannot find an NHS dentist but that would not be a problem for Gordon Brown.”

A Treasury spokesman confirmed that Brown had paid, adding: “The chancellor does not go for regular dental check-ups and as such, under the old system, he could not stay on an NHS list.

“As a result, whenever he has needed to go to the dentist over the past decade, he has been to see Mr Druian, an old friend of [his wife] Sarah Brown’s family.” Druian’s clinic, the London Centre for Cosmetic Dentistry in Primrose Hill, has reportedly catered for patients such as Liam Gallagher, frontman of the band Oasis, and Natalie and Nicole Appleton of the group All Saints.

Druian said this weekend that Brown had “been a patient for years . . . whatever the fee is we send him a bill and he pays it”.

He added that the chancellor had “a good pain threshold” and had not been given anaesthetic for the root canal work.

This was partly because the root of the tooth was dead, reducing the pain, and partly because Brown did not want his mouth numbed by anaesthetic as he was worried about slurring his words at a speech later.

Druian specialises in cosmetic treatments not normally available on the NHS such as teeth whitening, which he has reportedly administered to Brown. It also offers routine procedures available on the NHS for far less.

A reporter who telephoned the clinic saying she was seeking root canal work on the NHS was told the practice was “fully private” and that the procedure would typically cost £630-£650. The price of root canal work by a private dentist is more commonly about £340 — or £42.40 on the NHS where available.

Labour has come under repeated criticism over NHS dental provision. Reforms 11 months ago were supposed to improve services by giving primary care trusts (PCTs) the power to sign individual contracts with dentists. But most practices now accept only new private patients, with just 29% of dentists prepared to take NHS work.

Other research, disputed by the government, claims there are 1.4m fewer people with access to NHS care as a result of the contracts, which have led to more than 800 dentists leaving the NHS.

Out of 14 practices within a mile of Brown’s Downing Street home and listed on the health service website, only four are accepting new NHS patients. Six offer only private treatment, two are taking new patients only if they pay and two others said they would provide NHS treatment only to selected patients.

The British Dental Association has lobbied Brown to improve NHS provision. In January it warned the chancellor that the goal “that everyone should have access to an NHS dentist is now further away than ever”.

The health department said: “Since the contract was introduced and PCTs took over commissioning, access to NHS dental services has been improving greatly.”

Additional reporting: Jonathon Tabet and Nadina Mustafa

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