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KaVo Dental Limited · Raans Road, Amersham, Bucks HP6 6JL Tel. 01494 733000 · Fax 01494 431168 · mail: sales@kavo.com · www.kavo.com For information call KaVo Handpiece Repairs on Freephone 0800 281020. A5 Techs SELECTED:Layout 4 3/6/10 16:48 Page 1 T he new £9m University of Portsmouth Dental Acad- emy has appointed its senior leadership team. Sara Holmes, newly ap- pointed Dental Academy di- rector, is joined by clinical directors, John Weld and Sarah Hartridge, and Dav- id Radford of KCLDI has been seconded as director of clinical studies/senior lec- turer in integrated dental edu- cation and multi-professional care, together with new business manager, Sophie Dampier. The new Dental Acamy is the shared vision of the Uni- versity of Portsmouth and King’s College London Dental Institute (KCLDI), and is due to open in September. The collaboration will see final year undergraduate student dentists from KCLDI and dental care professionals from the Uni- versity training together in teams in a state-of-the-art facility. Sara Holmes commented: “We’re pursuing a model of health education where final year dental students work along- side dental therapists, hygienists and nurses in teams that will prepare them all for the transi- tion to general dental practice. By teaching in a team-based pri- mary care setting we’re breaking new ground in dental education.” Students and staff will work with dental professionals and health organisations in the area in a joint endeavour to raise the oral health of communities in and around Portsmouth, Hamp- shire and the Isle of Wight. The Dental Academy will also offer a proactive and dynamic programme of con- tinuing professional develop- ment training events to local dental care professionals and therewillbeopportunitiesfornew research on integrated dental team training. DT N orthern Ireland Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has an- nounced the pay award aris- ing from the recommendations of the Review Body on Doctors and Dentists (DDRB) pay for 2010-2011. He revealed that “there will be no increase in net income for independent contractor General Dental Practitioners (GDPs). However, the expenses element of certain items of serv- ice will be increased by 0.9 per cent to reflect increase in GDP practice expenses.” Salaried dentists working in Trusts are to receive a one per cent pay increase. The British Dental Asso- ciation in Northern Ireland called the uplift to practice ex- penses ‘minimal’ and criticised the funding of Health Service for dentistry in Northern Ireland as ‘unrealistic’. Claudette Christie, BDA di- rector for Northern Ireland, said: “The basis of this announcement is simply unrealistic. Northern Ireland’s dentists have provided health service care to 900,000 people in the communities they serve this year. Salaried dentists working in Trusts treat some of the most vulnerable pa- tients in the community. For den- tists to fulfil their responsibilities to these patients it is important they are properly supported.” She added: “The idea that practitioners can reduce practice running costs does not reflect the reality of a situation where practices face sharply escalat- ing costs. This approach by the Department of Health, Social Services and Pulic Safety (DHSSPS) is particularly disap- pointing given their acknowl- edgement in evidence that in view of a new contract cont- inuing to be some way off, then efficiency gains should not be sought in practice in Northern Ireland. “With dental practices as small businesses at the corner- stone of communities across Northern Ireland, dentists are all too aware of the difficult financial circumstances we all confront. “But as clinicians, employing highly skilled staff, they’re also aware of the absolute impor- tance of maintaining standards for their patients and investing in the care they provide. Today’s announcement does little to sup- port those aims.” DT NI pay award ‘unrealistic’ D ental Protection is call- ing for less regulation, after being inundated with inquiries from anxious den- tal professionals. The indemnity insurance provider has found there has been an unprecedented demand for its advisory services. Its team of 48 dento-legal ad- visers has opened 3,700 new case files since the start of the year, as well as responding to almost 10,000 helpline calls over the same period. Prominent within this ad- ditional workload are concerns about the rapid proliferation of guidelines, governance, scrutiny and accountability from many quarters, and the time and costs involved. HTM 01-05, PCT/LHB practice inspections, HIW regis- tration and inspections in Wales, and the fast-approaching Care Quality Commission registration are all part of today’s compliance demands, and General Dental Council revalidation is not that far away. In response, director of Den- tal Protection Kevin Lewis, has called for more reasonable and proportional regulation of the dental healthcare environment. He said: “The controls are out of control. There is a widespread feeling in the profession – and a growing sense of anger and frus- tration – that there are too many hoops for practitioners to jump through, often resulting in a du- plication of effort and with no real justification in most cases. “The evidence base for many of these new requirements being imposed upon dental practices is sketchy or non-existent. We des- perately need a more balanced, logical and measured approach whereby any additional layers of governance are scientifically based and targeted where they are justified and most needed, rather than being applied across the board.” He added: “The current envi- ronment is wasting the time, en- ergy and money of many practi- tioners who are already doing an excellent job for their patients. “At a time when the new gov- ernment is proposing that high- performing schools should be in- spected less often and freed from unjustified bureaucracy, the cur- rent excesses in the regulation of dental health professionals are impacting upon morale, deflect- ing effort and resources and ulti- mately not serving the best inter- ests of patients. “Now that many NHS prac- tices are effectively operating on fixed incomes, any unnec- essary expenditure in one area may need to be funded by cutting back on more constructive ex- penditure elsewhere.” DT Too much regulation says Dental Protection New dental training centre appoints leadership team July 12-18, 20104 News United Kingdom Edition