At last June’s annual Local Dental Committee Conference in Harrogate the forthcoming meeting in Brighton looked set to be the last before an election. What no one can have expected until very recently was that it would fall in the middle of the election campaign.
No commentsRead more: LDC Conference in Spotlight as Election Approaches
You wake up with toothache. Just a few hours later you are seen by a dentist at a dedicated local clinic. Naturally this service is provided under the NHS. Not a dream, but reality, at least for some.
Shortly after the announcement of a General Election, the Department of Health & Social Care launched a ’Consultation’ to examine ’whether newly qualified dentists should commit to delivering a minimum amount of NHS work after graduating or repay some training fees’.
Read more: Should Dental Graduates Be 'Shackled' To The NHS? - Consultation Launched
We have all found unexpected items stuck at the back of a sofa. A banknote for the lucky and a long forgotten snack for the less fortunate. It takes the GDC to find nearly £200,000 worth of ‘research’ which they had commissioned and then apparently forgotten about.
Read more: How Did GDC Forget Their £195,000 Research Project?
Few stones have been left unturned in the UK as both the NHS and Government struggle to provide the size of workforce needed to cope with demand. There have been promises of extra training places, golden hellos, golden handcuffs, radical relaxation of checks on overseas dentists wishing to practice in the UK, and therapist led services. All present their own unique challenges. But perhaps we have been missing a huge and untapped resource, as revealed in a recent report from Japan.
Read more: How to solve the workforce shortage Japanese style.
A recent flurry of dental awards have recognised the special contributions of members of the profession both in their chosen fields and beyond.
(Image: Incoming BDA President Richard Graham presents Mili Doshi with the Award for Excellence).
Read more: Dental Awards recognise exceptional service inside and beyond the profession
As Dame Andrea Leadsom DBE MP becomes the latest senior Conservative and government minister to announce she’s standing down at the upcoming election, it will be back to ’square one’ for the dental profession in its quest to secure a workable NHS contract,
Read more: Election 24: Sunak and dentistry, the final chapter?
Faced with intractable problems, such as sorting out NHS dentistry, some politicians recognise that they might need expert advice. That raises the question of where to seek such enlightenment. Often, they gravitate to people like themselves, who speak their language and often share their limited experience of life outside politics.