Introduction

The Department of Health's final three year pay offer for BDA members working in the NHS has met a mixed response from the General Dental Practitioners Committee and the Central Committee for Community Public Health Dentistry.

The main elements of the offer were -

• a 10% increase in pay and GDS fees over three years (3.225% per year)
• a new mechanism for determining expenses to be negotiated
• a review of the salaried primary care dental service led by the Chief Dental Officer for England
• a capital fund of £50m in total, available over two years to both GDS practitioners and the salaried primary care dental service for modernisation and clinical quality.

GDPC members rejected this offer by 47 votes to 1 on the grounds that the deal fell well short of what was needed to keep the GDS afloat over the next two years. They asked that the negotiating team present evidence to the Review Body with a view to securing a one-year deal.

CCCPHD expressed serious concern about certain aspects of the offer but eventually accepted it by 25 votes to 3. Their main reason for accepting the offer was that they could not afford to lose the promised review, an issue they had been campaigning for over many years

These results were conveyed to the Department of Health on March 28th. The BDA is still awaiting their definitive response and that has caused serious delays in clarifying the issue for members.

The BDA's best understanding of the Department's position on salaried services is that they will agree to implement the three-year deal.

The DDRB (Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body) will now consider the written evidence already submitted by the BDA for a one-year deal for the GDS but, inevitably, the timetable for a recommendation will be much later than in previous years. Oral evidence will be heard in mid May and a report is anticipated in mid June. A new fee scale being would be introduced as soon as possible, perhaps from August 1st. The BDA has received the evidence to the DDRB from the Department of Health. This recommends that the increase in fees should be no more than the rate of inflation and 'be consistent with the awards already made in this round for the other review body groups i.e. between 2.25% and 2.9%'.

Evidence relating to the HDS will be submitted to the DDRB by the BMA. Updates will be available through the BDA website: www.bda-dentistry.org.uk