Toothless In England, the dental patient protest and lobbying group, is to present its views on the NHS dental access crisis to a ‘Roundtable’ meeting of Parliament’s Health and Social Care Committee on Wednesday 7th June.
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The government and its spokespeople never miss an opportunity to boast about their recent ‘reforms’ to the NHS contract that have enabled dentists treating more than three teeth to claim five UDAs (up from three) underpinned by a new minimum payment to practices of £23 per UDA.
It may be planet earth’s most abundant element, but are we breathing the right sort? This is the question that practices will have been asking after this week’s concern that they might have “the wrong sort” of oxygen in their emergency gas cylinders.
Read more: Illegitimate Oxygen Leaves Practices Feeling Blue
Dentistry, in particular its availability as an NHS service, is now a regular topic of debate in parliament. On a single day recently MP’s secured debates on services in two areas, Durham and South West England, with Minister Neil O’ Brien called to answer their questions. After all this commons activity we have a pretty good idea of how MP’s would like NHS dentistry to develop. But what do dentists in general practice, who hold the key to improving access, want?
In the first of a two-part report, GDPUK’s Guy Tuggle listens in to MPs discussing dentistry in eastern England.
Read more: MPs Turn Spotlight On East Of England – But Does It Shine Any Light?
Against a backdrop of a deepening NHS dental workforce recruitment and retention crisis, The General Dental Council (GDC) has tripled the number of places for the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) Part 1. The regulator states this is ’in response to the current demand’.
After much speculation, it has been confirmed that the Chief Dental Officer of England, Sara Hurley, will leave her post at the end of June.
The head of one of the largest dental indemnifiers is also a member of the Magic Circle. Not to be left out, the GDC have also been using their own skills to make things disappear. Some particularly good examples of their sleight of hand can be found on the GDC website.
Dental teams, to say nothing of the millions of patients locked out of it, must wonder what world government spokespeople, from the PM down, inhabit when challenged about the parlous state of NHS dentistry.