GDC Registration Report Reveals Significant Drop In Dental Nurse Numbers. Dental Technician Numbers Decimated Since 2019
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- Published: Wednesday, 18 August 2021 08:49
- Written by Chris Tapper
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A new report from the General Dental Council has shown another large drop in the number of dental nurses on the dental register.
The registration report shows that over 6% of dental nurses dropped off the dental register between July and August, reinforcing the feelings of many, that dental nurses are becoming difficult to recruit.
The GDC’s figures show that 3826 dental nurses didn’t renew their registrations at the end of July.
The latest figure is higher than that found in the GDC’s report of August 2020.
In August 2020, 3590 dental nurses failed to renew their registration with the GDC.
At that time, there was much speculation that the pandemic and the financial difficulties it produced for many dental nurses, may have contributed to the loss of such high numbers of dental professionals.
One head dental nurse in an independent rural mixed dental practice in the Midlands, told GDPUK that her practice had been trying to recruit a dental nurse “For months.”
“We had given up hope of trying to recruit a trained nurse,” she said. “But we can’t even find a suitable trainee.”
“We’ve found that a few potential trainees have been put off by the responsibility and registration requirements, and what they see as the risks of working in practice with COVID still being a safety risk.”
A practice manager in a predominately NHS corporate rural dental practice said “Yes, this has always been a difficult issue, even more so now, since a lot of nurses left through the COVID pandemic.”
She added “I think this is partly due to the fact that dental nurses aren’t given NHS benefits, such as pensions etc.”
“Dental nurses feel they are not recognised by the NHS unless it suits them – for example when they wanted us redeployed for UDC’s.”
GDPUK has also learned from a dental associate who wished to remain anonymous, that one corporate practice has been ‘poaching’ trained nurses from neighbouring practices in the same company.
The latest registration report also shows that the numbers of registered dental therapists and dental hygienists has also reduced since the July 31st DCP registration deadline.
The drop in registrations is despite the GDC registering qualified dentists from outside the European Union as therapists or hygienists.
A recent Freedom of Information request by a reporter for GDPUK showed that between January 2020 and April 2021, the GDC registered 372 overseas dentists as therapists or hygienists.
The move by the GDC has received criticism by professional organisations representing dental therapists.
Many ‘consultancy firms’ have been helping overseas dentists register as dental care professionals. They emphasise that candidates can register with the GDC without having to sit the Overseas Registration Examination, which includes a practical examination of clinical dexterity and skills.
The new GDC report showed that overall, nearly 2% of dental therapists and dental hygienists were lost from the register between July and now, despite the increase in overseas dentists registering in those fields.
Between July and August 2020, only 97 hygienists and therapists dropped off the register, compared with 225 this year, representing more than a twofold increase in failure to re-register.
The UK dental professional also lost over 5.5% of dental technicians after 313 failed to re-register with the GDC.
This drop in technician registrations was slightly down on the figure this time last year, when 335 technicians dropped off the list, but the figures showed that the downward trend for technician registrations is continuing.
From July 2019 to August 2021, the number of registered dental technicians has dropped by 13%.
At that time, dental laboratories were particularly badly hit by the effects of the pandemic and the limitations on the procedures carried out in practice.
The Dental Laboratory Association told lab owner Andy George, CEO of Ceroplast Ltd in Worcester, who has struggled to hire technicians recently “As of August 2021, there are 186 fewer registered dental technicians than in August 2020.”
Andy gave GDPUK some insight into what has happened to technicians over the pandemic.
He said “We have had the weirdest year ever, regarding work.”
Last March 23rd 2020 we were told to stop work and we did like everyone else just stop work. Although this was wonderful and the most amount of time I’ve had off since I was four, it was also the most worrying time as no money what so ever was coming into the business.”
“We started back to work in June with a skeleton staff of 3 rather than the normal 23. This gradually crept up however with the NHS side of things at virtually zero (and still on the floor) we had to make some difficult choices. We did get furlough money which was a life-saver but we were told that this was going to cease by September and so with a lot of angst we employed an HR company to help us make redundancies of around a third of our staff. “
“The majority of lab owners are around my age, late 50’s to early 60’s and loads of them just decided to stop working altogether and close. A few of the large ‘thrash’ labs also closed and this has left many surgeries without cover for their work particularly the NHS practices as many labs stopped carrying out NHS work and went totally private, partly due to the lack of available staff and because let’s face it, NHS work is a value product and not worth doing if you have any other work to do.”
“By letting NHS work go we have far less stress and are more in control of what we do on a day to day basis and most importantly, what we charge. Costs have gone up partly due to COVID and partly due to Brexit, both of which have had a huge bearing on supply for all of our supply companies and subsequently labs.”
“We have had labs asking us to help them out which we have to a point but we won’t take on any new NHS clients unless they also do at least 50% private work, however we are still getting surgeries ringing us on a weekly basis asking us to do their NHS work.”
“They are on a waiting list much like their patients waiting to get NHS work done, how times change. We are in no particular rush to expand, however, we have tried to replace a couple of our staff but there is no one out there and very few beginning to train it seems. Many have just left the industry as it’s less stressful and the pay is better elsewhere unless you work in an enlightened lab that values you and pays a proper salary.”
“Currently this is where we are at and surprisingly many labs are being approached not only by British companies but also American companies that feel that the sector is ripe for increasing costs and making more money for their shareholders. So far quite a few are taking up these offers. It will hopefully bring a bit more balance to our sector, in charging more realistic prices to dentists but also this will help the better quality labs tostay in business and the less able labs, sadly, will just do NHS work.
“Who loses here? The NHS is a wonderful thing but as ever, is very compromised in so many ways. And that includes dentistry it would appear.”
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