Mick Armstrong has been re-elected as Chairman of the BDA’s Principal Executive Committee (PEC). He said: “This last year has seen our profession take a stand. We’ve united to defend the pay and conditions of the next generation of dentists. We proved that our inefficient and ineffective regulator acted unlawfully. In 2015 I know we must do more.”
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Which? has launched a new campaign: Clean Up Dental Costs. They have found that people could be paying more than they need to, because some dentists aren’t upfront about prices or clear about what treatment patients are entitled to on the NHS. Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, said: “We are calling on the NHS and the regulators to clean up dental costs and make sure the existing rules are put into practice consistently.”
Read more: Which? campaign: Action needed to clean up dental costs
The Department of Health (DH) has announced details of two prototypes to be tested over the next two years; if successful they will be rolled out in 2017/18. Two types will be tested, all of which contain payments for quality, capitation and activity, but with different proportions of each element.
The British Dental Association (BDA) has called on the Chair of the Commons Health Select Committee, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, to institute an inquiry into the General Dental Council (GDC). Meanwhile Health Minister, Dr Dan Poulter, said he takes ‘a keen interest in the performance of the professional regulators’ and has raised the matter of the GDC’s performance with them.
Action is needed to improve children’s oral health after almost 26,000 children were admitted to hospital last year for tooth extractions, the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons has warned. The number of children who did not see an NHS dentist in England was double that of Scotland, it reported. The Dean, Professor Nigel Hunt, said: “It is unacceptable that so many children are being hospitalised from tooth decay when the disease is preventable.”
Although it is unlikely that a patient with symptoms of Ebola will present at a dental practice or clinic for either routine or urgent care, dentists and their teams may see patients who have recently travelled from areas affected by the disease. Public Health England has therefore issued guidance for dentists on how to treat such patients,which can be downloaded from:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ebola-advice-for-dental-care-teams
Read more: Public Health England issues Ebola guidance for dentists
The General Dental Council (GDC) has released figures showing that 2,092 dentists did not renew their registration in January this year. This compares with 1,455 at the same time in 2014. William Moyes, GDC chairman, marked the New Year with a letter to registrants, defending the stance he has taken.
A pilot scheme is being launched this month which will aim to ensure that concerns about dentist's performance are handled where appropriate by the local NHS in England, rather than by the General Dental Council (GDC). Chief Executive and Registrar, Evlynne Gilvarry, said: “The scheme has the potential to enable the GDC to focus more of its resources on cases where patients are at risk because the dentists' fitness to practise may be impaired.”
Read more: GDC launches pilot scheme for way to handle NHS complaints locally
The Children's Food Campaign has published figures showing that the introduction of a 20 pence per litre duty on sugary drinks would benefit Londoners' health, as well as save the NHS in London £39 million over twenty years. However another report says that Britain ‘is falling out of love with fruit juice’, according to a report which found that sales fell after campaigns about their high sugar content.