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Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

N ew ambitions to tackle the substantial public health harms from tobacco were announced on No Smoking Day by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. The Government has pub- lished Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England which sets out how tobacco control will be delivered over the next five years. Local communities will take a leading role in reducing smok- ing rates. The plan confirms action to end eye catching tobacco displays in shops which encourage young people to start smoking. Andrew Lansley said: “Smok- ing is undeniably one of the big- gest and most stubborn challenges in public health. Over eight million people in England still smoke and it causes more than 80,000 deaths each year. “Smoking affects the health of smokers and their families. My ambition is to reduce smoking rates faster over the next five years than has been achieved in the past five years. “We want to do everything we can to help people to choose to stop smoking and encour- age young people not to start smoking in the first place. We will help local communi- ties to take a comprehensive ap- proach to reducing smoking so we can change social attitudes to smoking.” The Tobacco Control Plan has three national ambitions to reduce smoking rates in England by the end of 2015: • From 21.2 per cent to 18.5 per cent or less among adults • From 15 per cent to 12 per cent or less among 15 year olds • From 14 per cent to 11 per cent or less among pregnant mothers These ambitions represent re- ductions in smoking rates that ex- ceed the reductions we have seen in the past five years. The Govern- ment has set out key actions in the following six areas: • Stopping the promotion of tobacco • Making tobacco less affordable • Effective regulation of tobacco products • Helping tobacco users to quit • Reducing exposure to second- hand smoke • Effective communications for tobacco control Within the plan, the Gov- ernment sets out actions to maximise the use of information and intelligence to support tobacco control activities. It also explains how tobacco control policies will be protected from vested interests. DT New plans to stub out smoking L ast year the General Den- tal Council (GDC) agreed a Corporate Plan for 2011- 2013 that stated it will efficient- ly manage hearings capacity and productivity. As part of that promise, and following a suc- cessful and competitive recruit- ment campaign last year, 51 new Fitness to Practise panel mem- bers have now joined the GDC. The new panel members were recruited by the Appoint- ments Committee, and those who were successful at inter- view underwent a two-day pre- induction training programme at the end of last year. They’ve been slowly introduced since the end of January this year and will sit on the Interim Orders, Profes- sional Conduct, Health, Perform- ance and Registration Appeals Committees. No more than two new panellists will be used on a five-person panel during their induction period. Ten dental care profession- als (DCPs) were appointed along with 19 dentists and 22 lay members. Neil Marshall, Director of Regulation at the GDC, said: “We have seen an increase in com- plaints in recent years and are working hard to clear a backlog of cases. In addition to the new panel members we have also invested in more hearings staff and additional legal advisers in order to increase our hearings capacity. We’re also reviewing our fitness to practise processes and procedures across the board in order to be sure that we are dealing with these matters as speedily, effectively and effi- ciently as possible.” The GDC’s key purpose is to protect patients and regulate the dental team. It supports the qual- ity of practice and reputation of the profession by setting stand- ards, promoting them and taking action when they are not met. The GDC aims to deliver regulation which is proportion- ate, targeted, consistent, trans- parent and accountable. It is committed to managing its re- sources effectively, efficiently and sustainably and to ensuring decision-making is collective, ro- bust and accountable. DT New FtP panel members T he Royal Wedding on April 29th has been declared a Bank Holiday. But are em- ployers obliged to give their staff the day off? Dominic Tomkins of Bowling Law, a member of NAS- DA’s Lawyers Group, says the an- swer lies in the staff contract and the practice’s normal policy. If staff normally work bank holidays then it’ll be business as usual. For practices that want to close for the wedding, says Dominic, the question of whether they have to give their staff paid holiday for the 29th will depend on the individual staff contract. If the contract allows the staff member a fixed number of days’ annual leave per year in- clusive of public holidays the wed- ding won’t increase the staff mem- ber’s annual leave entitlement, and the practice could just insist that the staff member uses up one day of their outstanding annual leave entitlement on the 29th. However,ifthecontractsaysthe staff member is entitled to a fixed number of days’ annual leave ex- clusive of public holidays, then that staff member (if they are full-time) will be entitled to take the 29th as an additional day of paid an- nual leave. Part-time staff on such a contract will have the right to their relevant pro-rata annual entitlement of 9 bank holidays per year, rather than the usual 8. As the wedding is sandwiched between Easter and May Day, it will be and remember to consider these holiday requests in good time and fairly (be that on first-come first-served basis or some other reasonable basis). Dominic is a lawyer with Bowling Law, members of NAS- DA Lawyers’ Group and can be contacted on 020 8221 8056 or email: Dominic.Tomkins@ bowlinglaw. DT Wedding day? Counterfeit medicines have been supplied to both UK and international customers T hree men were ar- rested and more than £1m worth of suspect- ed counterfeit and unlicensed medicines were seized yester- day as part of a simultaneous raid on three residential loca- tions, and a secure storage unit, in north and east London. The operation targeted the gang, with eastern Euro- pean connections, for alleged supply of vast amounts of coun- terfeitmedicinesinternationally including many customers within the UK. The drugs were alleged to have originated from the Far East. The trio, who have been re- leased on bail, are believed to be linked to numerous illegal online pharmacies selling fake prescription only medicines and other unlicensed drugs online. MHRA Head of Opera- tions Danny Lee-Frost said the stash of more than 300,000 tab- lets, recovered from what was described at the scene as an “Aladdin’s Cave of fake medi- cine” included Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, and was designed to “trick unsuspecting custom- ers that they were getting the real deal”. “These illegal online phar- macies have been supplying a massive amount of medicines, mostly to treat erectile dysfunc- tion, hair loss and weight loss, to many people around the world,” he said. “What we seized yesterday is estimated to have a street value of more than £1 million but the business these men were running could have gen- erated a turnover well in excess of that.“ DT Fake drugs arrest March 28-April 3, 20116 News United Kingdom Edition