Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale - 2022/23

NHS England today released details of Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale of General Dental Services (GDS) dentists in 2022/23.

Previously, separate country reports were produced; the Working Patterns report has been published as a UK report for each of the past four years.  Below we present key points for Northern Ireland only.

It is important to note that values are not comparable between countries due to differing contractual arrangements and the use of different methods to determine dental type in each country.

Note, the source for all figures is NHS England.

Key Points on GDS Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale in Northern Ireland in 2022/23

The report includes headline information on working patterns, motivation, and morale for self-employed primary care dentists in Northern Ireland for 2022/23. Information on average weekly hours, weeks of annual leave, the division of time between Health Service and private dentistry, and clinical and non-clinical work, is presented as well as motivation and morale measures.

The key findings among self-employed GDS Northern Ireland dentists in 2022/23 are given below. 

• NHS/Health service activity (as a portion of all dental activity) has fallen across all countries, with Northern Ireland having one of the biggest drops since the previous survey (from 72.6% to 62.7%).
• Northern Ireland has seen an overall increase in the amount of time dentists spend on clinical work during the last decade, reaching 82.4% in 2022/23.
• Weekly working hours, for both Principal and Associate dentists, have fallen since the previous survey.
• Overall, dentists reported working an average of 35.6 hours per week in dentistry in 2022/23, with Associates working an average of 33.6 hours per week and Principals working an average of 41.4 hours per week.
• Overall, dentists of all ages spent more than three quarters of their time on clinical work, with female associate dentists aged 35-44 spending the greatest average percentage of time (87.9%) on clinical work.  Females of all ages spent more time than males on Health Service work, with those aged 35-44 spending over 70% of their time on Health Service work.
• Males in all age groups worked greater average weekly hours than females, although this was not always the case when Health Service weekly hours were considered, with females aged less than 35 and more than 45 having higher average weekly working hours than their male counterparts.
• For 62.1% of dentists, less than 30% of their time was spent on Health Service orthodontic activity.  A majority of dentists (82.6%) reported that they spent less than 30% of their time on clinical orthodontic activity. 
• For dentists overall and associate dentists, those with a greater than 75% Health Service work commitment spent more time on clinical work than those who had lower health service work commitments.  For principal dentists, those with a Health Service commitment less than 25% spent most time on clinical work.
• All dentists (principals and associates) with 75% or more Health Service work commitments reported greater average clinical weekly hours than those dentists with lower Health Service work commitments. 
• Motivation and morale levels have dropped since the last survey for most dental cohorts in England, Scotland and Wales. However, in Northern Ireland, there has been an increase in the percentage of dentists answering positively to the motivation questions. 
• When responses to the morale level question are considered by dentist type however, there has been a decrease in the percentage of Associate dentists who answered positively to the morale level questions, but an increase in the percentage of Principals who answered positively.
• The most common contributory factor to low morale for Providing-Performer/Principal dentists is increasing expenses and/or declining income. Recruitment and retention issues have become increasingly prevalent for dentists in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland since the last survey.
• Around two-thirds of dentists across the UK often think of leaving dentistry (63.4% of Principals and 66.0% for Associates in Northern Ireland).

[1] This publication was previously produced by NHS Digital; Health Education England, NHS Digital and NHS England have now merged into a single organisation, to be known as NHS England https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhs-digital-merges-with-nhs-england/

Notes to editors: 

1. Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale 2022/23 is published on the NHS England internet site only at: Dentists' Working Patterns, Motivation and Morale - NHS England Digital

2. Note, NHS England must be quoted as the source of all figures.

3. General dental practitioners are independent contractors who have undertaken to provide dental treatment and appliances on behalf of the Strategic Planning and Performance Group, Department of Health.  Currently in Northern Ireland, there is only one type of contract under which these dentists can operate, that is, General Dental Services (GDS).  Under GDS they have to provide a full range of mandatory dental services.  A self-employed Principal dentist is also the practice owner/partner; an Associate dentist is a self-employed dentist that enters into a contractual arrangement with a Principal that is neither partnership nor employment.

4. NHS England is England’s authoritative, independent source of health and social care information.  Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researchers, regulators and policymakers in their work.

5. The report was produced by NHS England, in consultation with a working group comprised of representatives from all the Health Departments, all devolved Governments, business support organisations for each country, the British Dental Association, the Doctors and Dentists’ Review Body, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and specialists in dental accounting and law.

6. The analysis is based on a sample determined by those dentists who completed the Dental Working Patterns (DWP) Survey. The results are weighted to reflect the nature of the working population, which for Northern Ireland is derived from data sets provided by the Business Services Organisation.

7. For media enquiries please contact the DoH Press Office at by email pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk.
8. Follow us on X @healthdpt.
9. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The Duty Press Officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.

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