Bureaucracy and rising costs dent dentists’ morale

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The British Dental Association claims that rising costs and endless administration are denting dentists’ morale in the UK. According to the BDA, a third of dentists say their spirits is either low or very low.

Dentists are becoming increasingly disillusioned with their profession as a result of excessive administration, not enough time to provide patients with preventative dental care, rising costs and endless problems with the dental contract, which was brought in by the Labour government in 2006.

The Coalition government is currently working on a new dental contract and plans to scrap the 2006 contract in the near future. John Milne, Chairman of the BDA’s General Dental Practice Committee said that morale was extremely low amongst family dentists in the UK. In the last four years, Milne said dentists had become increasingly frustrated with red tape and he claimed there were real fears surrounding the future of the profession.

Mr Milne said he was looking forward to the introduction of the new dental contract and recognised that the government was working to improve NHS dental care in the UK; however, he said he was worried about CQC registration. By 2011, all dentists must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), along with GPs and hospitals; the new measure has worried dentists, as they fear the registration process will involve yet more administration. John Milne claims that CQC registration is an issue and he has urged the government to sort out the problem in order to allow dentists to focus on caring for people.

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