Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

11CommentFebruary 6-12, 2012United Kingdom Edition Lasers - Whitening - Cameras - Curing Lights Visit www.quicklase.com Call us 01227 780009 OFF o O QLQW40%Mag231211RG Upto a Whopping the times of French colonial rule, where in an attempt to exterminate rats people were paid a bounty for each rat pelt handed in. Instead of lead- ing to the intended extermina- tion, it ended up incentivising the farming of rats. Forgetting whether or not profession- als should be above this sort of behaviour, the question I ask is, are we? Of course, dis- cussing these issues in no way denigrates the scores of den- tists carrying out excellent work under the auspices of the NHS, however the finan- cial reality for many younger associates is effectively that they meet their targets or they face the dreaded C word: Clawback. I appreciate that the NHS will always be working within a budget, but surely the archi- tects of the 2006 contract did not fully envisage the impact it would have on front line ser- vices. If there was a union ded- icated solely to newly qualified dentists, I suspect they would have called for strike action en masse by now. How can a newly qualified dentist consid- er providing extensive restor- ative treatment (even when practice owners are being paid on that basis) when his or her UDA rate makes it impossible to do so? Surely this is now taking the concept of swings and roundabouts too far. If the government wanted to create a system with the motto ‘pay more, get less’ then I guess they may have succeeded; un- fortunately for younger associ- ates this also means ‘do more, get paid less’. The reality faced by young- er associates is one where the treadmill that they are on is far more unjust than the former fee per item system, where they could at least set the pace they were running to. Unless this was the intention of the 2006 contract, it seems to me that as an unwanted side effect many of the rights previously held by associate dentists have been part ex- changed by central govern- ment in order to meet the fi- nancial reality of capping NHS dentistry spending. The nGDS contract certainly offers little flexibility for younger dentists, who may have a contract with their practice owners to carry out 6,000-7,000 UDAs, but may not be at the stage of their ca- reer where this is a practical reality. Perhaps situations like these have led BDA chair Dr Susie Sanderson to express the view that “this could be the worst time in living memory to be a general dental practition- er in England”. Given that many of my den- tal colleagues are younger as- sociates I accept that my views may be somewhat biased, but when it comes to dental asso- ciates’ rights and ability to car- ry out what they were trained to do, we really must question whether or not the current system or the pilots to the new system actually serve patients or the profession fairly. Be- fore this can be achieved what we really need is an open and honest discussion about what is available or what should be available within the NHS and also to what extent and level this is provided. Whatever system replaces the current nGDS, in my mind it is abso- lutely clear that, unless we protect the rights and working conditions of younger dentists, we risk severely damaging the profession. DT About the author Neel Kothari qualified as a den- tist from Bristol University Dental School in 2005, and currently works in Sawston, Cam- bridge as a princi- pal dentist at High Street Dental Prac- tice. He has completed a year-long postgraduate certificate in implantol- ogy and is currently undertaking the Diploma in Implantology at UCL’s Eastman Dental Institute. ‘If there was a union dedicated solely to newly qualified dentists, I suspect they would have called for strike action en masse by now’