Ethiopian Review

Nearly 1,200 dentists in England and Wales earned over £200,000 in the financial year 2007-08, official figures show.

The NHS Information Centre statistics show 382 dentists – nearly 2% of the total – earned more than £300,000 in the year.

Average take home pay for the 19,586 registered dentists was £89,062.

The Liberal Democrats said the figures would “astonish people” who were still seeking NHS dental care.

The figures cover earnings in the second year of the new contractual system for dentists.

However, the NHS Information Centre said they could not be compared with the previous year’s earnings, which were calculated differently.

Chief executive Tim Straughan, said dentists’ earnings varied greatly.

Dentists running their own practices who had a contract with the local primary care organisation to provide NHS services earned on average £126,807.

But dentists working in a practice without such a contract earned on average £65,697.

Since the start of the 1990s dentists have been increasing the amount of private work they do, resulting in problems for many people in accessing NHS services.

As a result, the government introduced the new contract in April 2006 in a bid to improve NHS access.

The aim was to end the “drill and fill” culture, which critics said had developed because dentists were paid for each individual treatment they carried out.

Under the new system dentists are paid for agreeing to do a set amount of courses of treatment over a year.

It was structured so that dentists would get the same amount of money for treating slightly fewer patients.

However, further tweaks to the contract are now planned after ministers accepted that their reforms had failed to improve patient access as hoped.

Working hard

John Milne, chair of the British Dental Association’s general dental practice committee, said: “These statistics reflect a time when dentists were working hard to overcome problems with the new arrangements and make them work for their patients.

“Many practitioners were contending with the uncertainty of potential clawback of their contract values.

“Dentists, almost uniquely in the NHS, carry the business risk of their surgeries and are responsible for providing premises, equipment and staff.

“The picture the statistics paint is one of earnings settling and the expenses of NHS practitioners rising slightly, although, as the Information Centre itself points out, it is hard to make comparisons with figures from previous years.”

Norman Lamb, health spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said: “These figures will astonish people who are struggling to find an NHS dentist.

“The amount of money some dentists are earning is staggering.

“It is vital that the NHS can compete with the private sector to secure the best staff.

“However, we need to know that we are getting value for money.”

Health minister Ann Keen said: “NHS dentistry is improving and many dentists are now keen to expand their NHS work.

“Today’s report confirms that NHS dentists have good levels of earnings.

“Access to NHS dentistry is continuing to improve, following record investment, an expanding workforce and a continuing increase in the amount of services being bought by the NHS.”

- BBC