Dental Protection has frozen its Scottish indemnity subscriptions yet again for the majority of categories. In the space of just two years, a gap of £800-£900 has opened up between the full time general practitioner annual subscription rate charged by Dental Protection for its members in Scotland, and the equivalent rate in the rest of the UK. For membership periods commencing in the year from 1st June 2011, the Scottish rate for practice principals remains £1,490 (£2,380 outside Scotland) and for non-principals the Scottish rate is just £1,360 (£2,170 outside Scotland).
In announcing these huge differences, Hugh Harvie (Dental Protection’s Head of Dental Services for Scotland) explained that Dental Protection has a strict policy of fairness and transparency in its approach to subscription setting. He commented,
“As members of Dental Protection, Scottish dentists are not expected to subsidise the much worse case experience in the rest of the UK, where special factors like the “no win – no fee” solicitors lead to more claims, costing much more to resolve than in Scotland. Under these conditional fee arrangements, most of the additional cost goes to the claimants’ lawyers and we simply don’t see that here in Scotland.
A subscription saving of £800 or £900 is huge for an average practitioner, but it is still a true and fair reflection of the actual difference in cases and costs north and south of the border. Dentists who are working in practices who have joined our DPL Xtra programme can pay even less (£1,290) as well as having all their dental nurses fully indemnified free of charge (for GDC challenges as well as any claims).”
He continued, “This year we have also added a number of new categories across the whole of the UK, which will enable more of those working part time, and those involved as Foundation Trainers, Scheme organisers etc to pay less. All this, and free CPD for the whole dental team in many different formats makes for a compelling package.”
To find out more about Dental Protection’s new Scottish categories and rates, contact
E member.help@mps.org.uk
T 0845 7187187
Media contact
David Croser
Dental Protection
33 Cavendish Square
London
W1G 0PS
T: 020 7399 1339 E: david.croser@mps.org.uk