“Pay cuts have consequences”

Eddie Crouch, the BDA’s Vice Chair and Chair of its Review Body Evidence Committee, said, “The rhetoric and the reality on dentists’ pay couldn’t be any further apart. As a profession we are not looking at ‘minimal’ rises or even pay ‘freezes’. Any talk of ‘pay restraint’ for dentists is simply a euphemism for deep and sustained pay cuts. All the official evidence tells precisely the same story. We are not ‘all in this together’, and our profession should not be expected to take a disproportionate hit to bail out a cash strapped NHS.

“Let’s be clear, these cuts have consequences. Patients quite rightly demand ever higher standards of care, and that requires a well trained and highly motivated team, armed with the best in equipment and materials. We are reaching a point where delivering this on ever diminishing funds will no longer be possible.

“Today (16 November) colleagues from all the home nations and crafts spoke with one voice. Their message was simple: we can’t go on like this.”