This is action calling...

NHS England has started the process of setting its next agenda. This could be the start of a consistent approach to commissioning and delivering services to meet the needs of our patients. There have been times over the last few years when every conference or event about dental policy has used the themes of collaboration, stakeholder engagement and innovation. The ‘call to action’ is the most recent addition to the NHS suite of consultations, and dentistry has its very own call.

NHS England describes this as a request to patients, public, staff and partners to join a national conversation about the future demand on NHS services and the impact of changing health needs; and then how the NHS will meet these. Arguably this may not be the easiest slide deck to distil and it may even be difficult for members of the public to understand all the content but the underlying concepts do seem very relevant and hopefully a lot of patients and dentists will respond. Like me, some of you may remember NHS Dentistry: Options for Change and when reading the information pack for the ‘call to action’, there do appear to be some similarities between the current key challenges and the main findings from Options for Change.