A rallying cry

The Chair of the Principal Executive Committee used his address to BDA Conference in Manchester to outline key strategic priorities for the BDA, including a focus on dental regulation, contracts and workforce morale.

The speech follows on from a dramatic year for the profession, which saw the government forced to backtrack on a £2,000 pay cut for foundation dentists, and the General Dental Council pulled up in front of the House of Common’s Health Committee for a scrutiny hearing.

Speaking on polling day for the UK General Election, Mick Armstrong said:

“In this general election campaign you might have thought you missed the debate on dentistry. Well you didn’t, because there wasn’t one. Put simply when politicians talk about health they don’t mean oral health. When they bang on about ‘whole person care’, that ‘whole person’ doesn’t have teeth.

“What this means is we can’t be the quiet profession any longer. Sitting back, on the fence or on the side-lines will not cut it. If politicians have been unresponsive to our issues, it’s up to us to change that, and get out there, set agendas and lead debates.