Two years ago, a bit like anything the General Dental Council does lately, our oil-fuelled central heating boiler was condemned. It was old and tired, was wasting money and was basically unsafe – yes, am still talking about the boiler, but, you know, there are parallels there.

Backup is without doubt the most important element of your IT Infrastructure, without a robust backup process in place in your practice your patient data is at risk, and if you lose your patient data, your whole practice is at risk – 60% of businesses that lose their data close within 6 months

I was fifteen and I was on my first ‘date.’ We were in the Grove Cinema, Winson Green, Birmingham. For some stupid reason, which looking back was actually probably reasonably refined psychological reasoning for a 15-year-old lad playing to what he thought might appeal to girls, I had decided to take Jackie (‘twas not her name) to see ‘Love Story,’ the saccharin-drenched blockbuster of that particular year.

So, it’s been a heavy few days for the General Dental Council, clinging desperately on to its reputation as a law-abiding health regulator, while being dragged into a murky, treacherous quicksand, by its own past misdemeanours. The following isn’t a full list of the GDC’s antics, by any means.