Request to reduce annual retention fees for dental nurses.
In January of this year, Mrs Xyanthe Lambert submitted a petition to reduce annual retention fee.
She required a minimum of 500 dental nurse and successfully achieved 592 signatures to put forward the petition on the government website http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dentalnurses/
Mrs Xyanthe Smith said
“I would like to highlight that dental nurses are on a lesser wage than hygienists/therapists and laboratory technicians, but are expected to pay the same annual retention fee as them.”
The response below, received on Wednesday 31st March, led to much disappointment but it was a good start and The Dental Nurse Network will continue on to move this in the right direction.
“The registration of dental nurses is the responsibility of the General Dental Council (GDC), which is independent of Government under the longstanding policy of successive governments that health professions like medicine and dentistry should be self-regulating. Therefore, the Government has no influence over the fees charged by the GDC.
Registration offers major improvements for both the quality of dental care and the status of dental nursing, by ensuring that all dental nurses have to undertake an accredited training programme. Experience of other healthcare professions suggests that, over time, the remuneration of dental nurses will improve as candidates for new appointments are required to demonstrate a higher level of educational attainment.”
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