A rare journey into Facebook, as I was distracted once again from doing proper work, led me to a conversation about associate contracts and how someone felt that they had been swindled by the UDA value they were being paid when the actual UDA value was listed on their payslip by mistake.
While I understand that may leave a bad taste in the mouth, let's be in no doubt that the vast majority of Principals and all of the corporates are not in the business of handing out 50% of the UDA value they receive from their CCG.
This is perhaps a good opportunity to dispel the myth of the historical 50% contract (yet again, light the blue touch paper) as a broken instrument that cannot possibly work in modern independent dentistry.
In my practice it costs approximately £700 to open every surgery, every day of the week (not including weekends). If you are an associate in that surgery who is on 50% you have to gross £1400 per day without any lab costs whatsoever for me to break even (that's me turning up for work for no money to allow you to earn £700 a day)
If you're an associate reading this who's becoming more enraged by the post just stop and think about that for a minute. In which altered reality did it seem reasonable for someone to earn £700 a day while the person who has set up the business and who works tirelessly to maintain the standards, train, recruit, maintain and nurture the staff, take all of the stress and hassle of business continuity and contingency while trying to maintain their own clinical practice get nothing for you turning up to work?
That is mental.
Examine your own practice at the present time. How likely are you to regularly turn over £1400 a day with no lab bill? There is no other industry where the performer gets paid half of their turnover.
This is, and always has been, a complete red herring 'i'm entitled to 50% because i'm a dentist'... 50% of what? 50% of not very much is half of 'is it really worth it?'
Forget percent, go to your Principal and tell them what you're worth. Tell them what you want to earn. Turn this into an end of year figure and break it back down through however many days you're going to work and set the fees accordingly. If patients won't pay it then you're not worth it and you have to reassess your worth within society. Let you Principal work on a wholesale retail situation as happens in every other aspect of industry. It's actually none of your business what the Principal makes, it's only important that you make what you're worth and this is the essence of the Chinese contract - you're happy, i'm happy, everybody wins. If somebody is unhappy then they leave and break the contract.
When you get to be an associate who is turning over in excess of £5000 per day every day you turn up then you may have some ability to bargain but if you're an associate in this position, in reality the patients who you are providing that treatment for are being sourced, selected and produced by the Principal or the Principal's organisation so you're bargaining ability is limited. If you're a jobbing associate grossing less than £1500 per day then you're on the downward curve and within the next five - ten years your value will be in the region of £35,000 - £40,000 per year.
Don't complain about whether you're getting 50% of this or 50% of that, just get good. Get good at doing dentistry, get good at communicating with patients, get good at organising the administration of sending out enormous treatment plans, get good at presenting products, get good at understanding digital, get good at being a linchpin in your practice and helping every member of the team you can, get good at all those things or get a lower salary as a low level technician in a dental business.
Blog Post Number: 1162
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