Dear Rishi,
This week you made an announcement about increasing the workforce in the healthcare sector. In addition, the headlines also stated that you intend to force dentists to stay in the NHS for five years after qualifying.
Firstly, this is akin to keeping someone in a system against their will. If the system was that great, would they not be staying in it?
As a business owner, it is my honour, duty and priviledge to create a work environment for my team so that they feel valued, inspired, safe and fulfilled. This will encourage them and will motivate them to stay within my organisation - because they want to, not because they have to. I want those who willingly engage.
Your rhetoric is akin to saying that I will force them to stay in my workplace because I pay their salary and funded some aspect of their growth and development. That is coercing someone just because you do not have the leadership to create the momentum from within them.
Meaningful leaders inspire people. Dealers, they try to create knots and bonds to ask people to comply.
If you truly want dental professionals to stay and serve the NHS, let's think of this:
1. Over the last few years, regulations and compliance have added a huge amount of additional workload on anyone involved in patient care - but the workload is not directly in the care of the patient. This adds additional time in doing things after the patient has left the surgery.
2. Over the last few years, the amount of litigation and patient complaints over seemingly small things have gone through the roof. I gather that UK dentistry has one of the highest rates of being sued in the world. This adds additional time in writing immaculately detailed notes and records to protect dental professionals.
3. Over the last few years requirements have gone up in many areas.
This has increased the cost in terms of the money, time and resources needed to deliver good quality dentistry that will cater for the long term health of the patient.
Yet over all those years, your funding has gone down in real terms. In all those years, you have created more beauracracy and complexity in trying to serve patients. I would be interested to see how dental health outcomes have changed. (The adult dental health survey would have given us good data but someone decided to scrap it).
In all honesty Rishi, you are asking dental professionals to do a lot lot more, with a lot lot less. All of this is happening where conditions have been created such that, one mistake could have a huge disruption to their career, their life and their personal existence.
Dental professionals are under high pressure trying to do the right things for the patients. They practice in anxiety, fear and stress.
Who would want to work like that?
Yet, the seemingly smart thinkers that advise you think that forcing them to stay in this system will be the solution. It might serve your populist drives and your headlines, but you will not be able to keep someone in a bad place for too long.
Meaningful leaders change the environment to improve the conditions in which their superstars can perform OR speak the truth of why this is not possible. They work with their superstars to find solutions for the cause.
I suppose dealers, they just try to force people to do things that will win votes!
And by the way Rishi, those therapists (the ones whose title you forgot) are facing the exact same difficulties. So are hygienists (remember them?). Dental nurses are not that excited at the moment either. Will you be forcing them all?
The dental cause is healthcare for the population - are you meaningfully going to help the professional achieve this or are you going to do the same dealership stuff that we are used to from everyone else who went before you?