The picture for all dental practices is improving, said Ian Simpson, a chartered accountant and a partner in Humphrey and Co, which carried out the statistical exercise. “Income and profits are up across the board with all types of practice seeing increased profit and relatively unchanging costs. Fee income is up by £7k per principal in a typical NHS practice and by £23k in a typical private practice.”
He said that private practices suffered in the years following the 2008 slump but have gradually picked up. This is partly due to private practices having greater control over their income than NHS practices and hence having a greater ability to recover from poor trading results in the recession.
In 2013/14, the average gross fee income generated by a dentist working in a private practice was £248,000, compared to £180,000 for a dentist in an NHS practice. Meanwhile, practice expenses equate to 65 per cent of fee income for a NHS practice compared to 68 per cent for a private practices.
The statistics are gathered annually from accountant members of NASDAL across the UK who together act for 27 per cent of the dental profession. The statistics provide average ‘state-of-the-nation’ figures so NASDAL accountants can benchmark their clients’ earnings and expenditure and help them run their practices more profitably.
Ian said that a variety of key components had remained unchanged: UDA rates are almost identical, as well as business structures, with 58 per cent of the profession being sole traders, and the rest either partnerships or Limited companies; the number of incorporated practices increased by three per cent. Earnings for associates have gone up by just a small amount, at around an average £700 per individual.
Nick Ledingham, of Morris & Co, Specialist Dental Accountants and the chairman of NASDAL, observed that the profit differential between NHS and private practices was small and should be regarded as a trend rather than a significant turning point.
He commented: “Whilst there are most definitely some very difficult challenges ahead for both NHS dentists and private dentists, we are very pleased to see that the profession appears now to have weathered the economic storm.”
Also at the press conference where the figures were announced were representatives of the NASDAL Lawyers’ Group, Chairman Andrew Lockhart-Mirams and Jenin Khanam who provided an update on legal issues in the dental world.