After some months with a depleted Executive Team, the GDC have announced the appointment of their new Chief Executive and Registrar.
According to the GDC website, Tom Whiting has now been appointed, and, “will take up his position in the next three months.”
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A seasoned campaigner for GDC transparency has submitted a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the regulator on the subject of registrant suicides. Very recently he submitted a new FOI simply asking if the GDC ever intend to publish the results of their suicides ’research project.’ That project has been the eventual response to the ongoing demands to know how many registrants have taken their life during the GDC’s Fitness to Practice process.
NHS111 has handled nearly five million dental related calls over the past five years figures sourced from the Government by the Labour Party have revealed.
Read more: Access Crisis Latest: Five Million Calls To NHS111
Dental Hygienists and Therapists who possess the necessary training are set to enjoy new freedoms to use medicines previously only available to them via the use of a patient specific direction (PSD) or patient group direction (PGD). They will be permitted to use previously regulated medicines under ’exemptions’.
Read more: Hygienists And Therapists To Be Given Enhanced Prescribing Powers
The government has launched a twelve weeks ’consultation’ to canvass opinion and support for proposals to supply an additional 1.6 million people in the North East with water containing added fluoride. Currently, around half the population in the North East enjoys the benefits of fluoride including parts of County Durham, Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne.
Read more: Government Plans To Boost Fluoride Reach in the North East
The indemnity organisations provide regular advice warning dental professionals of the risks that can come from using their phones at work. Now a case has emerged where a patient has come to regret their own in-surgery photography. Khan Gorgulu’s photo, taken as he sat in the dentist’s chair, ended with a jail sentence.
Read more: Selfie in Surgery Led to Six Year Prison Sentence
It has been a turbulent few months at the GDC. Challenges have included: high level departures, continued pressure over its failed Fitness to Practice (FTP) process, including from its own regulator, and increased awareness of its reluctance to admit the numbers of registrants that have committed suicide during FTP. Despite this, things have recently got worse for the regulator.
Announcing its long anticipated Dental Recovery Plan, the Government repeatedly claimed that an additional £200M was being pumped into NHS dentistry to help it address the access crisis. Even the BBC News was seemingly taken in government spin, its February 7th report stating "To support the proposal, an extra £200m will be invested on top of the £3bn currently spent each year".
Read more: Gotcha! Leadsom Confirms £200M For Dentistry Is NOT Additional Funding
Media headlines on April 1st are always laden with spurious news, however, few in Wales were amused by the Welsh Government’s announcement that NHS dental charges have risen by up to 36%.
Read more: Welsh Dental Patients Charges Increased By Up To 36%