BDA submits evidence to Review Body
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- Published: Monday, 19 February 2018 07:42
- Written by News Editor
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The BDA says that successive below-inflation pay awards, combined with lengthy delays in their implementation, have led to very considerable erosion of dental incomes. In its 2018/19 submission, the BDA has called for a pay uplift, which must at the very least curb any further erosion of pay in real terms. They are calling for an inflation (RPI) linked award plus 2%.
The BDA evidence says that the key challenge for NHS dentistry is recruiting and retaining dentists. The impact of morale and motivation is vital to recruitment and retention and in stemming the rates of attrition. Ongoing work is needed to ensure that we attract new members to the profession but we also need to make sure that those currently working in the NHS are valued and want to stay.
The NHS is losing valuable dentists they reduce their NHS commitment and seek to retire or leave the profession and this situation is causing a recruitment issue in general dental practice.
They are warning of looming and fast approaching crisis in recruitment and retention of NHS primary care dentists in the UK. Of real significance is that our members are reporting that the higher the NHS commitment the lower the levels or morale/motivation and enthusiasm about work in the dental profession. “This is of grave concern,” says the BDA.
General dental practices are suffering with less than one applicant per post (outside London) for advertised positions and 63% of practices that attempted to recruit associates experienced difficulties in doing so.
In England, huge sums of money are clawed back from practices unable to meet their NHS commitment for various reasons including failure to recruit associates.
GDPs seriously question the effectiveness of the whole DDRB process. Despite engaging constructively with the DDRB over the last four years, it is our view that all that has been delivered is a massive drop in income and no prospect of any meaningful improvements in the pay, morale and motivation of the workforce in the near future.
Despite the financial challenges facing dental practices and the ongoing cuts in pay, patients’ expectations for high quality care are just about being met. However, the DDRB cannot allow for patient access and care to be severely adversely affected before acting on dentists’ declining incomes.
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