ISSUE 6, VOL.5


Editor’s desk with Bruce Oxley A serious blow Contents January 2015


The Christmas truce in the battle between the GDC and the BDA is over, if it ever really happened at all. Dentists’ wallets will be £890 lighter this month after paying an eye-watering 55 per cent more for their registration at the turn of the year. Welcome to 2015.


However, for many, it is not the money that is the real issue. It is the performance and perceived value for money of the GDC, which goes to the heart of this bitter dispute. The fact is that, far from ending the war, Mr Justice Cranston’s ruling that while the increase stands, the GDC acted unlawfully in its consultation process, has only deepened the anger and divisions between the regulator and the profession.


This looks like being an early skirmish in what is likely to be a long and


increasingly acrimonious war. Neither side will be satisfied with the ruling – the BDA’s members still had to pay the increased fee and the GDC has suffered another serious blow to its credibility. Its procedures and processes have been criticised first by the Professionals Standards Authority, then during a parliamentary debate and now by a judge in the High Court.


A number of dentists in Scotland have told us that the only way forward for them is the creation of a separate Scottish regulator and a new Scottish- only representative body. Steps have been taken towards both of these of late and this decision will only have galvanised their resolve.


® Bruce Oxley is editor of Scottish Dental magazine. To contact Bruce, email bruce@connectcommunications.co.uk


NEWS> 05 Column: Biting back with Arthur Dent


06 Outrage at decision to uphold ARF hike


09 Audit fear for NHS practices


11 ‘Radical rethink’ for Childsmile


FEATURES> 24 Interview – Prof Peter Mossey


30 Plenty to smile about


44 Practice profile 34 Lab profile – DTS International


CLINICAL> 50 CPD article – Assessing the options


56 Endodontics


AD FEATURES> 70 Business and financial


PRODUCT NEWS> 77 Products and services


Welcome


Scottish Dental magazine 3


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