Following the resignation as GDPC chair of Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen, after his election as an MEP, the report to LDC Conference was given by the two vice-chairs, Shawn Charlwood and David Cottam. Much of their report centered the little progress on GDS contract reform, but included recruitment and retention, Brexit, amalgam and patient charge revenue.
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The 2019 Annual Conference of Local Dental Committees took place in Birmingham last week. The motions put forward showed a wide range of dissatisfaction with the NHS and the 2006 contract, as well as low morale and concern about the mental health of dentists. The Conference was also addressed by French dentist Marco Mazevet, economist Stephen Tidman and special advisor, Paul Batchelor.
Read more: LDC Conference voices widespread concerns in the profession
Richard Welbury, professor of paediatric dentistry at the University of Central Lancashire and Professor Jason Leitch have been appointed CBEs in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Fiona Ellwood, founder and patron of the Society of British Dental Nurses, and Julie Fountain, long-standing Trustee and Programme Co-ordinator of Teeth Team receive the BEM.
Analysis of replies to Freedom of Information requests submitted to all local NHS areas in the UK by Pulse, the magazine for GPs, suggested 367,937 patients were displaced from their (GP) surgeries last year, forcing them to make longer journeys to see a GP. Earlier this year the BDA reported that 1 million new dental patients were unable to access NHS dentistry, ‘as recruitment and retention crisis mounts’.
The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland’s dental faculty has warned that Ireland is losing dentists it has trained to other countries through a lack of dental specialist training in the Republic. It says that many dentists training to become dental specialists are forced to travel abroad to study because Ireland has no formal mechanism for State-sponsored training.
Read more: Ireland is ‘losing dentists’through lack of specialist training
The Migration Advisory Committee has published its review of the Shortage Occupation List, adding veterinarians, web designers and architects, but significantly not dental practitioners. This was despite evidence from the BDA that many practices were having trouble recruiting and from the GDC that a third of European graduates might be leaving in the next five years. The Home Affairs Committee has also called on Government to protect EU citizens rights to work in UK
Read more: No shortage of dentists says Government committee