DENTISTS' EARNINGS
SIR,—As one who is affected very greatly by the present unsatisfactory state of affairs in the public dental service I have read with interest your fair and reasoned paragraph Mr. Bevan and the Dentists. However, two points in your article call for comment as they are questions of fact which, if distorted, can give a very unreal picture of the present situation. (1) The Spens Committee was called upon to make recommendations only with regard to the fair rota/ remuneration of a dental practitioner under- taking the treatment of patients in a National Health Scheme. To relate a scale of fees to this total remuneration was the work of another committee, appointed by the Minister at the last moment before the National Health Act came into operation. It is the findings of this body, quite unduly hurried to complete its task, that has led to the problems now facing the public and the profession. There is no question of going back on the Spens report on total income, but only of adjusting the scale of fees to give that recommended income, and not a sum in excess of it as at present, (2) School dental officers have been promised by all and sundry that their remuneration would be reviewed in the light of the findings of the Spens Committee. However, no amelioration of their present low salaries has been forthcoming, and they still earn on the average as little as £650 per annum, as against the £1,785 earned by the private practitioner doing the same work. (This latter figure is that accepted by the Minister of Health when adjusting the Spens report from 1939 to 1948 values.) It now appears that nothing ever will be done to bring the public dental officer to something like financial parity with his private practitioner colleague, and that alone is the reason why those dental services, so ironically known as priority services, are now crumbling away whilst the manifold authorities who claim to be responsible for them hold infrequent conferences at which they talk ... and talk .. . and talk.—Yours sincerely,
Westlands, Westlands Avenue, Grimsby.
DONALD W. HUNT.
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