DT News - UK - Dentists warn of recruitment crisis looming over NHS

Dental Tribune UK

Thu. 8 February 2018

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LONDON, UK: Over two-thirds of NHS practices in England have had difficulties filling vacancies, a recent survey by the British Dental Association (BDA) has shown. It also found that, of those seeking to recruit staff, half reported problems in this regard in the previous year.

Things seem to be particularly critical outside of London, where practices often receive only one applicant—or even none—for an advertised position. This worsening access to NHS dentists adds to long waiting lists and patients having to travel up to 100 miles to receive treatment.

According to the BDA, the worrying figures reflect an overall disillusionment with the system that the association says is in urgent need of reform. Surveys have shown that job dissatisfaction is already at an all-time high in practices with a great deal of NHS work.

“It is a damning indictment of current policy that the dentists who go over and above with NHS care are now paying the price in low morale,” said BDA Deputy Chair Eddie Crouch. “The constant treadmill of targets and pay cuts mean something has to give, and services cannot be maintained when practices are unable to fill vacancies.”

Fuelling the low morale, incomes of dentists in England and Wales have decreased by almost 35 per cent over the last decade, statistics from NHS Digital have shown, making the sector increasingly unattractive to work in. Subsequently, the majority of dentists currently working in the service intend to leave it within the next five years, and one in two dentists under 35 see no future for themselves in the NHS, according to another survey by the BDA. Instead, that demographic is considering increasing the private work they do, working in private practice or moving abroad.

Crouch said, “Failure to act is already leaving millions of patients across the country in limbo. We look to ministers to take responsibility and show dedicated health professionals that NHS care is not an unattractive option.”

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