NHS dental contract holders will receive an uplift of 4.64 per cent overall, backdated to April 2024. The DDRB recommended a 6 per cent uplift, and the ADG has estimated the actual costs dental practices are facing are significantly higher. This is a pay cut for dental practices, which the ADG has called a “recipe for disaster”. With dentistry in crisis, and a huge gap in the dental workforce, the ADG has said this is not the time to hit dentistry so hard.
While dental practices attempt to manage raises across the full spectrum of their costs, the DDRB’s ‘uplift’ has given dental contract holders an expenses increase to run their practice of just 1.68 per cent. The ADG has said the increase in costs and the impact of inflation makes the ‘uplift’ a cut.
According to the ADG, cost increases dental practices are facing in 2024/5 include:
- Supplier costs for laboratories are up by 10 per cent
- Dental practice materials are up by six per cent
- Staffing costs are increasing by at least five per cent
In addition, the long wait and delays to the announcement of the DDRB 2024/5 pay uplift made for anxious times for dental practices throughout England. Given the ongoing impact of the National Insurance changes from April 2025, the ADG has urged that the uplift for 2025/26 be communicated earlier to allow practices to financially plan for the coming year. ADG members are keen to support Labour’s manifesto commitments, but these cannot be delivered without realistic additional funds, delivered on time.
Neil Carmichael, executive chair of the ADG, said, “Delayed, disappointing and not actually an uplift at all is the ADG’s response to the DDRB pay announcement. Our association is the expert on the ‘mixed economy’ of NHS and private dentistry and as such is best placed to advise on the reality being faced by our member dental practices up and down the country. We are urging the DDRB, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England to work well in advance with the dentists at the ‘coal face’ who can explain the reality of the crisis being faced by practices – large and small. We must work together on a recovery plan to put dentistry back on its feet. A fair and reasonable pay uplift is essential, as well as prioritising boosting the dental workforce.”