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Kevin Lewis takes a closer looks at the GDC’s Shifting the balance: a better, fairer system of dental regulation. As January drew to a close, the GDC published its call to arms, ‘Shifting the balance: a better, fairer system of dental regulation’. Would it be too cynical to suggest that the timing of the release…
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The NHS is telling dentists to offer all necessary treatments to patients, but not offering the funding for these services, Kevin Lewis says. Reading about the alleged New Year spat between the Prime Minister and Simon Stevens, NHS England’s chief executive, I was struck by the different sets of rules that seem to apply for…
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Big corporate bodies should be held accountable when things go wrong, rather than blaming dentists and treating them like commodities, Kevin Lewis says. Marilyn Monroe was almost exactly the same age as the Queen – until her premature death. So she would have enjoyed her 90th birthday last year, just a few weeks after QEII’s…
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Kevin Lewis runs through some soundbites from 2016. What kind of a year was that, then? In a year that was never short of surprises and which featured Brexit, Brentrance, Top Trumps, Rockbottom Trumps and the emerging prospect of a second ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’ for the population of Scotland, there have been so…
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Kevin Lewis highlights the unfair media attention dentists receive compared with other healthcare professionals. Whether you prefer the Australian description of ‘rorting’ (abusing or taking unfair advantage of) a system, or the colloquial British version of ‘ripping off’, many improbable yarns have been spun in recent weeks about sharp practices in healthcare. Dentists – as…
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We need to strike a good work-life balance if we are going to enjoy our best years in dentistry and after we retire, Kevin Lewis says. A career in dentistry spans, for most people, what might be described as the best years of their lives. Put aside for a moment the two phases of life…
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The GDC needs to toe the line if it is to fulfil its aims and stay within its remit, Kevin Lewis says. Good news comes in many disguises, and tends to secure far fewer headlines than bad news. How galling it must be for the General Dental Council (GDC), therefore, to emerge from another budget…
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Kevin Lewis highlights the different levels of scrutiny healthcare workers are held to, compared with managers and regulators. We are going a bit upmarket for the duration of this column. My starting point is none other than Homer – and I can sense that you are impressed already. Lovers of classical poetry and literature will…
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Kevin Lewis weighs up the latest round of NHS junior doctors’ strikes in England. Lost in all the noise and acrimony of the junior doctors’ dispute is the fact that the unilateral imposition of a new contract on the junior doctors is not a UK-wide issue. It is only being mooted in England and driven…
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Kevin Lewis reviews the latest ‘dental horror chronicles’ published in the media. Was it something we said, perhaps? Or is anyone prepared to ‘fess up to having been particularly horrid to a journalist recently? A torrent of abuse rained down upon the dental profession from different parts of the media in early August and seemed…
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Kevin Lewis reviews the latest ‘dental horror chronicles’ published in the national media Was it something we said, perhaps? Or is anyone prepared to ‘fess up to having been particularly horrid to a journalist recently? A torrent of abuse rained down upon the dental profession from different parts of the media in early August and seemed…
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With all the political reshuffling going on and a vote for Brexit, Kevin Lewis tries to make sense of it all. The phrase ‘a week is a long time in politics’ is generally attributed to the former Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Along with the rest of his party colleagues he had waited through 13 long…
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The success of the CQC in dentistry is a story that has slipped under the radar, Kevin Lewis says. Time is a great healer, they say. And so, I might suggest, is putting the right people in place, showing that you are willing to listen and not least demonstrating that you encourage feedback (warts and…
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Pharmaceutical companies are finding new ways to keep the prices of their drugs and medicines high, which is hitting the NHS, Kevin Lewis says. You may be forgiven for thinking that I have disappeared for an early holiday half way through this column. One or two of my regular readers (and quite possibly, both of…
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The current commissioning model for the NHS has become part of the problem, Kevin Lewis says. This column is like a magical mystery tour through the good, the bad and the ugly. For starters, we have a black hole in the NHS that was recently quantified by Simon Stevens as £2.45 billion in the financial…
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Kevin Lewis wonders whether the current generation of dental students receive adequate clinical training. I sense that this column is going to irritate some people. Look away if you are a proud descendant of, or in any way related to, a train driver. Those of you who know me well will be aware that I…
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A short-term fix will not solve the huge underlying issues found in the NHS, Kevin Lewis says. The government’s recent promise of more money (an extra £2.4 billion in stages through to 2020) to fund front-line medical GP services and support staff has provided a rare ray of sunshine in an otherwise dismal period for…
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Kevin Lewis questions the suitability of the International English Language Testing System for dental professionals. I have no wish to enter the amusing but somewhat pointless debate regarding the true origin of the above quote, which was referring to England and America. George Bernard Shaw seems to win the popular vote, not least because it…
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Kevin Lewis uses the BDIA’s warnings over buying cheap dental equipment to warn the NHS about continuing to drive down UDA values. My heart sank when I saw the front page headline in The Times a few weeks ago, which read ‘Blundering doctors get protection from blame’. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that…
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