NHS dentists on £300,000 a year

Published on Thursday 20 August 2009 22:01

THE number of dentists earning more than £300,000 a year from treating NHS patients in Scotland has trebled in the last five years, according to figures obtained by The Scotsman.

A total of 24 dentists were revealed in the profession's top NHS income bracket during 2008-9, figures from statisticians revealed.

But the figures do not include extra earnings from private patients or payments for items such as rent, sickness and remote area allowances – potentially boosting the final total for some dentists by thousands of pounds.

The league table of earnings of 2,371 non-salaried dentists showed the number making it into the highest NHS pay brackets has continued to grow, with average earnings for the latest financial year of 89,009.

In 2004-5 only eight dentists in Scotland earned 300,000 or more before tax for NHS work – rising to 24 last year. A further 23 earned 250,000 to 299,999, while 91 earn between 200,000 and 249,999.

But Andrew Lamb, director of the British Dental Association (BDA) in Scotland, said the league table was misleading, as it did not take into account the amount deducted in running costs for dental practices.

"Dentists are not coining large amounts of money. The average dentist in Scotland earns, pre-tax, approximately 40,000 from the NHS.

"In Scotland dentists are paid by the NHS on a fee per item basis. This is made up of two elements: the payment to the dentist and the payment to cover practice costs.

"The second element, made up of practice expenses, is an agreed figure between the health departments and the BDA and is deemed to be 56 per cent of the total payment.

"So, the figure of 24 dentists earning more than 300,000 from the NHS includes the 56 per cent which the dentist will pay towards the running costs of their practices and should not be viewed as personal income," Mr Lamb said.

Scottish Dental Practice Board chairman Donald McNicol said: "The difficulty with these figures is that some dentists listed as earning large salaries have dentists working under them."

Scotland Patients Association chairwoman Margaret Watt said: "There should be a lot more transparency about dentists' earnings and what exactly they are getting from the NHS."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said:

"This information comes from NHS payment records and therefore obviously does not include details of any private income.

"Recent information on English and Welsh dentists' private earnings was compiled using tax-return information from HM Revenue and Customs, and we hope the next time the dental earnings and expenses survey is compiled it will also include information on Scottish dentists' earnings."