A dentist from north-west London has been jailed for claiming payments totalling £780,000 for work which was never carried out. Jayantilal Bhikhabhai Mistry, 67, from Willesden, was sentenced to three years and ordered to pay £50,000 in costs for fraud and false accounting. Mistry admitted the fraud and paid back the money in full.

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Read more: Dentist jailed for defrauding NHS

The dental regulators have said that the system they oversee is placing huge burdens on the profession. Dr Janet Williamson from the Regulation of the Dental Services Programme Board, has said that the bodies need to "think differently" to deliver for patients. Their report, on the future of dental service regulation, outlines steps to rationalise dental regulation, including needed action on data sharing, complaint management, quality improvement and communications.

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Read more: Time for regulators to cut red tape

Junior health minister Ben Gummer MP has told Parlaiment that the Government recognises the need for ‘immediate reform’ of healthcare regulation but did not offer any explicit commitments to give the matter parliamentary time. BDA Chair Mick Armstrong said:  “It’s good to see warm words on regulatory reform, but what we really need is a timetable”.

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The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has reported on the findings of its special investigation into concerns about the General Dental Council (GDC) raised with them by a whistleblower, who they did not name. In their report, running to 306 pages, they said that the independence of the GDC’s Investigating Committee were jeopardised by various ‘objectionable practices’ that had not been corrected. The BDA has called on the GDC chair ‘to go’.

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Read more: PSA issues damning report on GDC

The first 'pay what you feel' dentist scheme in England has launched in Dewsbury, which has been chosen as the pilot for international charity Dentaid, who want to help improve the dental care of people in need in the area. Dewsbury Dental Centre will see homeless people, migrants, low wage workers and vulnerable adults who are suffering pain. Patients can pay whatever they can afford.

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Read more: Dentaid comes to rescue – in Dewsbury