Easy Payment option for GDC Regisitration
Dear GDC Whilst we can appreciate the requirement for DCPs to be registered & accountable, we would like to request you make it easier for members (especially low paid ones) to make their yearly payments. Surely it would be easier for us all to set up a direct debit to pay our subscription over each 12 month period. This would also help members to continually pay without having to remember to re-register every 12 month period & would also save the GDC time & money in sending out written, email & text reminders. Also £10 per month (current fee's) over a 12 month period is much more affordable to all registrants concerned rather than a lump sum in the middle of the summer holidays. Perhaps we could pay a month in advance to ensure we are always covered in case for some reason our direct debit fails one month. We would also like to request you bring into place a system where your fee's reflect the approximate annual pay of the registrant's job role. For example, a dental hygienist, therapist and/or technician will generally bring home a much larger pay packet than a dental nurse. And yet dental nurses are required to pay the same retention fee. We would also like to request that non-surgery DCP's have a separate level of cover. For many nurses like this, we never actually come into contact with a patient in surgery and many of us don't even work in a dental practice/hospital. We are generally involved in teaching, assessing, reception, management etc. Surely this does not require the same cover as a dental therapist? Maternity is another area which should be taken into consideration, as any DCP working in the private section will only receive Statutory Maternity Pay & will be out of the dental environment for at least 9 months. And yet a DCP on maternity is still required to pay the full 12 months subscription for approximately 3 months cover. It is not really surprising that many dental nurses are leaving the profession as these fee's, on top of paying for CPD courses, on a dental nurses wage, are difficult to afford, especially when required to settle the full £120 in one go. Most dental nurses would be more inclined to stay in the trade if the GDC were to acknowledge dental nurse pay levels - by at least giving us payment options and ideally creating a lower level of registration cover for dental nurses as a separate entity to hygienists, therapists & technicians. We, the undersigned, would appreciate the above to be taken into consideration when the GDC next meet to discuss registration of DCP's.
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