This unprecedented drop has seen real incomes for practice-owning dentists fall by as much as £47,000, and their associates by over £23,000 over the last decade. Costs facing individual practitioners for regulatory compliance and registration have gone up by 1000 per cent in the same period.
NHS dentists are expected to receive a below inflation pay uplift of less than two per cent for 2018/19.
Official data also published today shows morale and motivation among NHS dentists is now at an all-time low in all UK nations, with lower levels of morale linked to higher NHS commitments. The data shows a continued fall in the NHS workforce in England and Wales, with numbers at their lowest levels since 2010.
Research for the BBC has revealed that just 52 per cent of NHS dental practices in England are accepting new adult patients, and just 60 per cent accepting new child NHS patients. The Westminster Government’s spend per head on NHS dentistry has fallen £4.95, from £40.95 to £36, in the last five years.
The BDA’s chair of general dental practice, Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen, said, “Austerity is meant to be over, but across the UK NHS dentistry is running on fumes. We’ve seen a drop in real incomes without precedent in the public sector. The results are predictable, morale at an all-time low, recruitment and retention problems mounting, and all as patients wait longer or travel further for care.
“Underfunding and failure to deliver meaningful reform has left the sustainability of this service in doubt. Matt Hancock pledged to put prevention at the heart of his approach to the health service. In the service’s 70th year he must recognise that we can’t have NHS dentistry without NHS dentists.”