NHS England announces a 1% pay rise for dentists

NHS England has awarded dentists a pay increase of 1% for 2017/18, after a recommendation by the DDRB.

The government claims the below-inflation increase has been given to ‘help repair the public finances’ and ‘protect jobs’.

‘Devastating’

However, the British Dental Association (BDA) has called the rise ‘devastating’, claiming it fails to address the 35% drop in earnings since 2006.

‘At the same time that child tooth extractions are surging, the government seems intent on making NHS dentistry unsustainable,’ Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen, the BDA’s chair of General Dental Practice, said.

‘Dentists have seen a 35% drop in earnings in the past 10 years.

‘Today’s uplift does nothing to address – let alone reverse – a drop that’s already impacting on our ability to deliver the improvements in facilities, equipment, and training our patients deserve. 

‘We’re living in uncertain times with the fall in the value of the pound, the rise in the cost of materials and the spiralling costs of regulatory compliance, and all compounded by the chronic underinvestment in NHS dentistry.

‘This is a devastating blow for dentists’ morale; and these deep and sustained cuts have long ceased to be a question of “pay restraint” or “efficiency savings”.’