Dentists left to fill their coffers after lockdown

 By Barnie Choudhury

THE body which represents dentists in the UK has told Eastern Eye that it is disappointed with the government directive that self-employed members who earn more than £50,000 will not get help from a Covid-19 grant scheme.

About one in four of the 11,800 practices which are affiliated to the British Dental Association (BDA) is owned by south Asian dentists.

Last month the government introduced the self-employment income support scheme. It allows busi­nesses to apply for a taxable grant worth 80 per cent of their trading profits, up to a maximum of £2,500 a month. But only then if their profits are no more than £50,000 and more than half of their total in­come for either the tax year 2018 to 2019 or the aver­age in 2016 to 2017, 2017 to 2018, and 2018 to 2019.

Eastern Eye understands that the BDA has writ­ten to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and spoken to the HMRC to try to increase that figure to £65,000. One south Asian dentist from the Midlands, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were sur­prised by the way they were forced to close under the government’s lockdown measures.

“We have never before had NHS England literally contact us on a Wednesday evening and tell us we had to shut overnight,” they said.

“Everything happened so quickly. At first, we were shocked, completely shocked. From being told to stop ‘aerosol procedures’, those which create fine mists, then suddenly told to stop and close, that was a real shock.”

Like many practices this one must triage its pa­tients. Thus a receptionist takes calls and passes the details to the dentist who contacts the patient. This new way of working is far from ideal, said this dentist.

“It’s so frustrating,” they said. “But this is unprec­edented. In all my 30 years I have never faced a situ­ation like this. We know some will have the virus and the symptoms won’t show, in others it’ll knock them out for six. We’re looking for leadership, and they have to be radical. At an NHS level, they’re re­sponding to a government which is struggling. It’s not brilliant, but anyone in power would struggle, no matter what colour of politics they’re from.”

The dentist said at first the government did not understand general practice dentistry.

They said, “What the chief dental officer, Sara Hurley, wasn’t understanding was that even though we were getting NHS income, there were a lot who have more private work than NHS. So, because we had NHS work, we couldn’t access the business grants sort of stuff. But thank goodness they’ve lis­tened to the BDA and said we could apply depend­ing on the proportion of the NHS work we do. That’s a fair outcome.”

A survey by the BDA has revealed that one in five dental practices fear they will shut permanently the longer the lockdown and pandemic continue. This Midlands practice sees at least 60 patients per day, and it has been forced to seek financial assistance. Even then they had some problems.

“Someone I know applied for the grant from their council and got it straight away,” they said. “But when I applied online it wouldn’t go through. When I contacted the council, they said I wasn’t eligible. But when I told them of another dentist in exactly the same situation had got it, they went away and came back to me asking me to reapply. I am so re­lieved it went through. That’s going to help. That’s really going to help.”

At the moment, dentists who carry out NHS work get funding through contracts, and this money must be used to pay staff. This dentist said the grant was a much-needed lifeline.

“For us, it doesn’t quite tally up because we rely on a bit of private work for us to sustain the practice. When the private work stops, because we’ve closed our doors, we need that bit of grant money to sus­tain and help us. But that £10,000 has to last us as long as we’re shut. I just don’t know how long that money will last. No-one has a clue when we can open our doors again. We’re hoping June.”

A spokesperson for the BDA told this newspaper, “We know these are difficult times for our dentists, including those from the south Asian communities. We continue to push government to extend support to self-employed dentists and private practices, having taken the case to the chancellor, health min­ister and HMRC. We are working tirelessly to ensure that all of our 11,800 dental practices get the finan­cial help they desperately need.”

Neither the Treasury nor the Department for Health and Social Care would comment on the BDA’s call for increasing the £50,000 grant limit