Peter Dyer, BDA President, led the celebrations to mark the Association’s move to 64 Wimpole Street 50 years ago this year. He read a congratulatory letter from the BDA’s Patron, Her Majesty the Queen, who opened the building in 1967. The Association’s health was drunk 'in traditional British manner', with a cup of tea.
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The National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers (NASDAL) has taken the unprecedented step of recently writing to the major banks providing healthcare loans over concerns that banks’ lawyers are adding another unnecessary level of bureaucracy to the buying/selling of a dental practice and costing dentists money.
The General Dental Council (GDC) has announced that there will be no change in the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) for dentists or DCPs in 2018, for the third year running, despite its financial position becoming ‘much more robust’. BDA Chair Mick Armstrong said dentists should not be expected to subsidise the GDC’s “obsession with holding vast and unnecessary reserves of our money.”
Read more: BDA attacks GDC for holding ‘vast and unnecessary’ reserves
Every week a different person working in the NHS takes on the Twitter handle of @NHScurator. This week it’s Claire Stevens President of the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) and Consultant in Manchester takes on this role, promoting #DCby1. Go to https://twitter.com/nhs to see what she has to say.
An investigation has begun after drain cleaning fluid was used instead of an approved dental product during treatment of up to 43 children at a clinic in Ennis, Co Clare, Republic of Ireland. It is believed the drain cleaner product used was potassium hydroxide, at a low concentration of 5 per cent. The product is used in many disinfectants.
Read more: Drain fluid mistakenly used at Irish dental clinic
Two women have been cleared of illegally carrying out tooth whitening at a beauty salon in Scotland. In the first case shop owner Cheryl Dickson was cleared of illegal dentistry work after offering teeth whitening. The second was a case of mistaken identity when charges against Sharon Frew were dropped at the Sheriff’s Court.
The BDA is concerned about the 9,500 dentures that are lost each year in NHS hospitals. The figures come from a BDJ study which investigated the loss of dentures in hospital trusts in Kent, Surrey and Sussex over a five-year period and the cost of replacing these. Of the 11 trusts that provided data, a total of 695 dentures were lost. Seven of the trusts reported that it cost £357,672 to replace these.
The BDA has published a survey of its GDP members which indicates that almost 58% of dentists who responded are planning on turning away from NHS dentistry in the next 5 years. GDPC chair, Henrik Overgaard-Nielsen said: “Practices across the UK are already reporting major recruitment problems. This is a crisis made in Westminster, and Westminster must respond.”
Read more: Over half of NHS young dentists heading for the exit says BDA
Practice Plan has published its latest NHS Confidence Monitor survey and, for the first time, private dentists have been approached for comment too. The focus for this survey switched from the profession’s confidence in the future of NHS dentistry to their happiness levels working within it. The results show a deep gulf between the happiness levels of NHS dentists compared to private dentists.
Read more: Dentists in NHS are much less happy than those in private practice