NHS Dentists in England to Receive 2% Pay Rise From October
The Government have announced that from October, NHS dentists will receive an uplift of 2% in their pay after the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration Review Body provided a recommendation to do so.
Along with this, the Government have also proposed an increase for expenses caused for general dental practice of 3%. The exception to this would be staffing cost expenses, will be capped to 2%.
The announcement comes in the wake of recruitment issues as the result of long-running austerity policies in the NHS in general and NHS dentistry in particular. This announcement will affect over a million workers in the public sector, giving them a pay rise not seen since the implantation of a series of pay freezes or pay cap of 1% in the NHS since 2010.
The announcement has been cautiously welcomed as an end to austerity in the public sector, although the British Dental Association noted that the pay rise is below the rate of inflation, is far from enough to offset the 35% reduction of income for dentists over that time.
As a result, the BDA are not optimistic that it will improve the issues with recruitment in the public sector.
Concerns have also been raised as to how the uplifts will be funded, and whether this funding will be taken from other services which could have a devastating effect on vulnerable patients in the community.
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