Indemnity in Scotland

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Dental Protection examines how Scottish dentists rate their current indemnity organisation and why it may be time for a change.

The survey
A survey was circulated in June 2010 from Dental Protection through a third party to find out how Scottish dentists regard their current indemnity organisation and the services that they provide. The survey was sent anonymously in order to discount any bias that would occur if the recipients knew the survey was from a particular indemnity organisation. The survey was sent to 2,700 dentists with a response rate of 13%.

Important factors when choosing an indemnity organisation
Recipients were asked to rate various factors on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 = not important, 7 = very important) regarding how important they are when choosing an indemnity organisation. The most important factor was the availability of the dento-legal advisers (6.51), followed by the experience of the dento-legal team (6.46). Lower subscriptions, local knowledge and recommendation were also high priorities.

Reasons for joining your current indemnifier
When recipients were asked why they used their current indemnifier 71% said that they were with the same indemnifier that they joined at dental school. This suggests that either the majority of dentists in Scotland are satisfied with their current indemnifier or that there is a certain amount of apathy within the market place. 18% joined through recommendation and/or reputation and 5% joined their current indemnifier because of lower subscriptions.

Service levels
Dentists were asked to answer questions regarding how they rated various services that were provided by their current indemnifier on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 = very poor, 7 = excellent). When dentists were asked to give an overall rating for their current indemnity organisation DPL members scored their organisation at 5.93 which was higher than all of our competitors within Scotland.

These are the scores for the various different areas of service:

DPL scored higher than all of our competitors in all of the areas of service listed above.

Improvements to service
Recipients were asked where their current indemnifiers could improve their current levels of service. The main improvements suggested were lower subscriptions, employment advice, more publications and courses, and for their indemnity organisation to be more interactive within the profession and more approachable.

Why change?
Dental Protection carried out this survey to examine what Scottish dentists currently thought of the indemnity organisations available to them and the services they provided. According to the survey 71% of dentists in Scotland are still with the indemnifier that they joined in dental school. Are you with your current indemnifier for the right reasons and with the following facts in mind, maybe it’s time to make a change?

Benefits of membership with Dental Protection:

• 50 dento-legal advisers: more than all of the other UK based indemnifiers put together.
• Fair subscriptions: We are a non profit making mutual and therefore we only take in enough money to ensure that we can fund current and future claims and services. We are the only UK based indemnity organisation who publishes our subscription rates as we believe in openness and transparency. 
• Local knowledge: Dental Protection has an office in Edinburgh and has dento-legal advisers who have an extensive local knowledge and are at the heart of the profession. 
• Availability: 72% of members who call DPL immediately get through to a dento-legal adviser.100% of members either get through to a dento-legal adviser immediately or are called back within 20 minutes. 
• Recommendation: 9 out of 10 dentists DPL have assisted with a complaint or claim would recommend us to a colleague. 
• Risk management: a huge range of risk management support including publications, workshops, conferences, risk management modules, interactive CD-ROMs and an education platform. DPL provides over 100 risk management events and lectured to over 3000 dentists in the UK alone in 2010. 
• DPL Xtra practice programme: a programme which rewards a commitment to a team approach to risk management with lower subscriptions and an extensive portfolio of risk management material for the practice. 
• Employment advice: is provided by telephone or via the DPL Xtra Practice manager website which is a benefit of the DPL Xtra practice programme.