2010 will see some interesting challenges in the UK dental world. We have a new president of the General Dental Council, although it’s not called that any longer. We now have a chair. Alison Lockyer becomes the first chair of the new GDC following on from Hugh Matthewson who held the role for the transition. She will be a popular choice as she is a high profile GDP who does not appear to have lost her roots. One former member of the GDC, Brian Lux doesn’t think that she was the right choice. He would have preferred a lay member, according to his post on GDP UK.
Alison Lockyer will be a popular choice as the dental profession may feel that it has some input into its own regulation. Many have felt that the GDC had gone too far in effectively ending self-regulation. Does it really matter whether the GDC is appointed or elected? Does it really matter if there is a chair who is a dentist?
It does matter to dentists who pay a large sum of money every year for the privilege of funding it. The question now is whether Alison Lockyer will have the courage to tackle some of the systemic weaknesses which have an impact on the quality of dentistry being delivered. The dental world needs something new.
Elsewhere in the dental world the corporates still invest heavily. James Hull has departed JD Hull with some other senior executives. Over at ADP we have new investors chasing the corporate riches available in dentistry. The sums of money being invested mean that money is being taken out of healthcare and into the pockets of shareholders. Does this mean less for dental professionals in the long term? Nothing new, then.
Meanwhile at the coal face we still talk about Steele whilst considering the disaster of the Warburton contracts which were borrowed from elsewhere. This contract has very little support and the quicker it is sent back to its origin the better.
Let us hope this year is not a repeat of the something old, nothing new, wrong things borrowed …the mood is blue!