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New national guidelines will be published within weeks to iron out inconsistencies in a wide range of dental treatments. The commissioning guides have already been drawn up by NHS England and are expected to approved for publication at a meeting later this month. They will cover: Specialist dentistry services Special care dentistry Oral surgery and…
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Swift action to end unnecessary fitness to practise cases must be a priority for the new Government, the General Dental Council (GDC) has said. The regulator has written to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, urging him to overhaul regulation of the profession after fierce criticism from dentists in the last parliament. And it has urged Mr…
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MPs will come face-to-face with the dentistry minister again, after David Cameron dropped the experiment of giving the job to a peer. The popular Alistair Burt – returning to the Government, 18 months after he was surprisingly sacked – will be responsible for all primary care, including dentistry. The veteran Mr Burt, a social security…
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Experts at a dental hospital have launched a blistering attack on the quality of care given to children by local dentists – describing it as unacceptable. Advice on preventing decay is ‘not being adequately delivered’, according to the paediatric dentistry team at the University of Liverpool Dental Hospital and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. As a…
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Dentistry is not mentioned once in any of the general election manifestos of the big three Westminster parties. In 2010, the issue was given prominence in the Conservative plans for government, which pledged a new dentistry contract that did not focus on ‘simply the number of treatments achieved’. The Coalition Agreement – struck between the…
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Dentists have been promised an end to wage cuts, as public-sector pay restraint became a general election issue. Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats pledged to call time on five years of austerity for NHS workers by guaranteeing pay increases at least matching the rate of inflation. But health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for the Conservatives,…
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NHS dentists will still be better off in retirement than most private-sector workers, economists say – despite controversial changes that came into force this month. From 1 April, health workers and teachers have lost what has often been criticised as their ‘gold-plated’ pensions, after the Government vowed to cut the bill for taxpayers. The shake-up…
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Sarah Wollaston, who led an inquiry into the under-fire General Dental Council (GDC), has criticised its defence of much-higher fees. And she described the evidence her committee heard about the scale of rotten teeth in children from many poorer areas as ‘staggering’. Dr Sarah Wollaston, a Conservative MP, spoke to Dentistry after the Health Select Committee…
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Pay review chiefs have been criticised for failing to negotiate, after a small increase in expenses for general dental practitioners (GDPs). The annual pay award for doctors and dentists contained few surprises, because Jeremy Hunt had already announced a two-year deal when he announced last year’s settlement. That decision sparked anger because Mr Hunt rejected…
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The head of the under-fire General Dental Council (GDC) struck a defiant tone at a Parliamentary inquiry, telling MPs: ‘Our prime responsibility is to protect patients.’ Giving evidence to the health select committee, William Moyes, the GDC’s chairman, admitted to a ‘genuine loss of confidence’ in the organisation among many dentists. But Mr Moyes argued…
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David Cameron has warned that Parliament will lose vital knowledge of dentistry if MPs are banned from having second jobs. The prime minister picked out the profession as a way in which Parliament is made ‘stronger’, as he rejected Labour calls to crack down on lucrative outside earnings. Ed Miliband vowed to act after two…
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Children are having rotten teeth pulled out unnecessarily because of a ‘crisis’ in specialist services in the community, MPs have been told. An inquiry heard evidence that a growing shortage of paediatric dentistry specialists is forcing youngsters to undergo the traumatic operations under general anaesthetic. The claim was made by a consultant at Leeds Dental…
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There is not enough evidence that proposed measures to protect patients from contracting the human form of ‘mad cow disease’ will work, a health minister has said. Answering a Commons debate, Jane Ellison mounted a strong defence of what MPs have called ‘inaction’ over the risk of the spread of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD). A…
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The law will be changed within weeks to bar European dentists from working in Britain if they cannot speak English adequately. The Department of Health (DH) will push an order through Parliament before the May general election to give the General Dental Council (GDC) the power to impose checks. Currently, the GDC can act only…
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Dentistry will come under the spotlight at Westminster in the run-up to the general election, as MPs probe two controversies. The influential health select committee will investigate both the row over the running of the General Dental Council (GDC) and growing alarm over the scale of rotten teeth in children. Both evidence sessions will be…
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A senior MP has attacked a long delay before a decision on whether to give boys a vaccine to cut the soaring number of cases of mouth cancer. Health chiefs are examining whether to extend the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine – given to all year eight girls since 2008, to prevent cervical cancer –…
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Ethnic minority patients are significantly less likely to get an NHS dental appointment when they want one, Government research has found. Around 94% of white people who sought treatment in the past two years reported they were successful in getting through the door, NHS England said. But the same was true for only 89% of patients…
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Dentists face a further pay squeeze whoever wins the general election, following the first sparring in the four-month campaign. Labour responded to Conservative allegations that it planned a £20bn spending splurge if it wins power in May by reinforcing its tough stance on public sector pay. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said there was no…
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Progress towards a new dental contract is ‘frustratingly slow’, a health minister has admitted. Dan Poulter owned up to disappointment within the profession about the failure to secure the long-promised new deal, three years after the first trials got underway. But, with just a few months to the General Election, he insisted the coalition had, nevertheless,…
