The independent Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration (DDRB) have made their recommendations on pay, which officials are set to undo by failing to reflect the mounting cost of delivering NHS care.
The DDRB has recommended a 3.75% uplift on pay for high street General Dental Practitioners and for Community Dentists. This above-inflation award is the highest of any group within the NHS. It has recommended 3.5% for hospital dentists.
However, the Department of Health intends to use GDP deflator as the basis for the expenses uplift, which will radically underestimate the significant inflationary pressures dentists in England are under. Our estimates suggest that practices have seen staff costs increase by 14%, the cost of laboratory bills for items like dentures and crowns
increase by 9%, and other costs increase by 4%. Service costs for training practices are also to remain frozen.
“By failing to properly reflect the costs of care, Ministers are turning a recommended pay increase into a pay cut,” says our Vice Chair Peter Crooks. “These choices have real consequences for patients. The Government recently boasted of increasing dentist numbers to ease the NHS access crisis. This policy will achieve the exact opposite outcome.”
We will be closely following the approach taken by the UK government and will be pressing for a sustainable approach from devolved administrations.
