The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley has agreed a national uplift for GDS contracts and PDS agreements in England of 0.5%. This is in line with the Government’s policy of no increase to net GDP pay this year. The rise is largely to fund pay increases for practice staff earning less than £21,000 a year, again in line with the Government's public sector pay policy.

Although the link-up between the Dental Professionals Association and CODE has been called off owing to opposition from members, the proposed special meeting on 21 April will still go ahead, to discuss ways of rescuing the Association. In an email to members, acting Chairman, Reg Short, said the DPA had been ‘trading insolvently’ for some years and there had been a steady decline in membership.

News has broken this evening [April 19th] on GDPUK that the plan for CODE to take over the management of the Dental Professionals Association [DPA] has been called off.

The special meeting of the DPA this weekend in London will still be taking place.

More news will follow as soon as it is available.

The BDA has called for nominations to its new Principal Executive Committee (PEC). The committee, which will replace the current Representative Body and Executive Board, will assume overall responsibility for BDA policy and governance. PEC members will also be the legally responsible directors of the Association. Those interested in standing for election are invited to submit a completed nomination form and personal supporting statement by Friday 23 April 2012.

Following its launch in the Republic of Ireland in August 2010, Denplan’s Executive Board has taken the difficult decision to withdraw its presence from this region. It closed to new business on 1 April 2012 and  will not renew existing business (120 patients) beyond 31 December 2012. The move will not affect Denplan’s presence in Northern Ireland.

Serious doubts have been cast, on both sides of the Atlantic on a US study which claimed that there was a link between patient-reported incidence of having bitewings taken and an increased risk of developing meningioma, a brain tumour. The findings were reported in the journal Cancer, but there accuracy and relevance has been questioned by experts in both the USA and the UK. They do not justify the scare-story headlines put out by the media in both countries.