Dentists' £20k hello 'not the lifeline we thought'

A £20,000 "golden hello" to attract NHS dentists in underserved areas "hasn't turned out to be the lifeline we thought it would be", according to a practice manager.

Practices run by Dipali Chokshi were offered three of Cambridgeshire's 12 placements under a government recruitment scheme announced last year, but none of those places has been filled.

After learning that only four places across the county had been filled, she said: "I'm not surprised that other practices have faced the same challenges that we have."

The Department for Health and Social Care and the local NHS integrated care board have been approached for comment.

About 240 dentists across the country have been offered "golden hello" payments to work in underserved areas for up to three years.

They would get £10,000 in the first year and £5,000 in each of the subsequent two years.

Dr Chokshi, who runs practices in Cambridgeshire, including in March and Littleport, said when there was a job opening the scheme would be discussed.

"Every time we did offer it we did find that dentists were hesitant to accept it, because they weren't sure about committing to the NHS for that sort of period of time for that quantity of work," she said.

She added that it had been an "uphill struggle considering that the offer has been open in the region for some considerable time now".

"We thought it would be a lifeline [but] it hasn't turned out to be the lifeline we thought it would be, which is really sad because we were hopeful when we received it," she said.

She believes dentists are becoming increasingly disillusioned by the NHS and said it had "become financially unviable to continue to provide a quality service".

A report to Cambridgeshire County Council's health scrutiny committee on Tuesday said four placements had been filled, in Fenland, East Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire.

It added that the practices where another eight placements had been offered were "being reviewed to ascertain if they are still actively trying to recruit or if it would be more beneficial to step them down from this initiative to open this up to another practice who has previously expressed an interest".