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A health minister has rapped the General Dental Council (GDC) for its huge fee hike for dentists – branding it ‘unprecedented’ and urging a rethink. Answering a Commons debate, Dan Poulter heavily criticised the regulator for failing to produce any ‘compelling evidence’ that the increases were needed. Mr Poulter also argued the GDC was poised…
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Labour has vowed to make water fluoridation a priority if it wins back power at next year’s general election, telling Dentistry: ‘We need to be bolder.’ In an exclusive interview with Dentistry magazine, the party’s health spokesman pledged to try to persuade local health chiefs to finally ‘grasp the nettle’ on the controversy. Andy Burnham said:…
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A new law will rewrite the key objective of the under-fire General Dental Council, but the Government insists the move is not linked to current criticism. The Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill will require the General Dental Council, and other professional regulators, to make public protection its central aim. George Freeman, a health minister,…
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Dentists have missed out on ambitious plans to make using the rest of the NHS as simple as online banking – despite long-standing protests about their poor IT. NHS England has pledged that other patients will be able to check their health records online by 2018, setting out a blueprint to make the health service…
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Ministers will change the law to give the General Dental Council (GDC) the power to impose checks before a licence to practise is issued, where concerns emerge over dentists speaking English. Currently, the GDC can only act if dentists from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) – the EU, plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein –…
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Therese Coffey carried out a ‘mystery shopper’ test with all dentists in Felixstowe, Suffolk, after constituents warned they were being told all the town’s practices had full books. And the Conservative MP intervened with NHS England, which confirmed that demand for dentistry in the town was ‘in excess of the current commissioned activity’. Andrew Reed,…
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Little progress has been made on three key issues facing dentists in the 12 months since pleas were made to a health minister. That is the downbeat verdict of the British Dental Association, one year after it took its concerns to the Conservative party conference, holding face-to-face talks with Dan Poulter. Dr John Milne, the…
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Fluoridation was originally expected to be up and running in 200,000 homes in Southampton and south Hampshire this year, after a decision by the now-abolished strategic health authority (SHA). But the NHS shake-up, which axed SHAs, passed responsibility to Public Health England (PHE), which has said little on the controversy in the past 18 months.…
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It cost the NHS £3.1m to carry out ‘minor extractions’ from under-18s, over the 2012-13 financial year, and a further £27.4m for the ‘extraction of multiple teeth’. The bills were set out by health minister Earl Howe in answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Baroness Gardner of Parkes, a Conservative peer. More detailed statistics,…
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The all-party health select committee could explore a scathing annual performance review into the General Dental Council (GDC) by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), Dan Poulter said. Now the British Dental Association (BDA) has suggested an ongoing supplementary inquiry by the standards authority could determine whether the MPs launch a probe. The select committee has recently…
