Dental suicide

The coroner at an inquest into the death of Anand Kamath, which concluded in Wakefield earlier this week, recorded a verdict of suicide, having heard that Kamath had felt harassed and bullied by his Primary Care Trust. Kamath was the subject of an investigation by Airedale, Bradford and Leeds PCT following allegations of poor record keeping at the practice he ran with his wife, and was being threatened with being reported to the General Dental Council, the inquest heard. His suicide occurred just five days after a meeting with PCT officials.

In a letter to Earl Howe, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health in England, the BDA is also calling for consideration to be given to current contracts where dentists are finding themselves under unreasonable pressure because of inappropriate commissioning by the now defunct primary care trusts. Additionally, it is seeking assurances that their successors in the restructured NHS, the new Area Teams, will adopt a proportionate approach in their dealings with practitioners.