Hello Lancashire
BA thinking: over the years in LDC land we have had the continuing battle of getting dentistry on the agenda of the NHS organisations and ensuring we get the best deal for our dentists both on a national and local basis. This has been achieved in the main by making appropriate noises at the appropriate time with the appropriate people. At an Area Team level all is fine with Max and Nick but as we know the hierarchy across Lancashire and Greater Manchester is changing and we have to be quick to keep up! I do have concerns that during all the reorganisation etc dentistry will slip off the agenda at the highest level and the repercussions could be serious. In order to fly the flag our next move is to meet with Graham Irwin who is the overarching Director of the Lancashire and Greater Manchester Area Teams and hopefully get him on board with dentistry. I will report back once we have had the meeting.
Co-commissioning: to refresh you all with this one it seems intention of the NHS is to ultimately devolve the commissioning of Dental/Pharmacy/Optom to the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) who are in essence extremely similar in location and size etc to PCTs (slight déjà vu moment here). This can be done on one of three levels:
1. CCGs leave the job with the NHS England Area Team but have an input
2. CCGs work in tandem with the NHS England area Team
3. CCGs take full control of the process
There are some legal considerations in here but ultimately it does send alarm bells ringing in my head! The other concern is we do believe it is level three that is the suggested way forward based on advice from the centre. This is one of the issues we will be seeking further clarification on at the meeting with Graham Irwin as to the local view
Lancs/GM merger: sort of fits with the above in that we could end up with an overarching NHS England body across Lancs/GM overseeing the activities of the CCGs at local level in the same way the Strategic Health Authorities used to oversee the PCTs (déjà vu again). Again we will look for clarification on this one.
PLEASE NOTE THE ABOVE COMMENTS ARE IN THE MAIN MY THOUGHTS AND ARE SUBJECT TO VARIATION INTO THE FUTURE AS IS NORMAL WITH THE NHS.
GDPC report: we are fortunate to have John Edwards as Chair of the Lancs LDC Exec as John is also a member of the General Dental Practice Committee and regularly reports back to the three Lancashire LDCs on the outcomes from meetings etc. These reports are posted onto the Lancs LDCs website for reference.
Just one more thing: advertised on the radio recently has been the “George Foreman Grill” guaranteed to reduce the fat content in your cooking – great idea but why George Foreman? George Foreman is a former World Champion Heavyweight Boxer and not a chef. So why is he associated with this product? What is coming next the Jamie Oliver boxing gloves and the Gordon Ramsey punch bag Anyone’s guess I suppose!
And another thing: good old Royal Mail called the other week and we were out so guess what – they took our delivery back to the depot and left us with a card which included a cheery message inviting us to pick it up from the depot the following day – great! Normally we request a redelivery but because we were going away the following week yours truly decided to take up the kind offer of being able to pick the item up. Now this is not an easy task in Cleveleys town centre due to the fact there is no parking within half a mile of the depot and Cleveleys is also the Traffic Warden centre of Europe. BA managed to park in their staff car park risking all the consequences of getting a parking ticket and having to report myself to the GDC for the heinous crime. On entering the depot I was attended to by a chap in an orange jacket with “Manager” all over it in luminous print. I concluded that this chap was the manager of the depot – you have to get up early in the morning to get one over on me! In addition to his jacket he was wearing shiny grey pants – my Dad always said “never trust a chap in shiny pants” and he was right. When I was given the item which was so valuable it needed an armed escort to deliver it I discovered it was a parcel containing some lint rollers!! Are we serious!
Result Royal Mail 1 – Common sense 0
Onwards and upwards
Bernard
Bernard Alston
Sec Lancs LDC Exec
Lancashire Dental R&D Network
A Lancashire wide R&D network has recently been set up to support the work of the Local Dental Network and we plan to focus initially on the access problem that exists in certain areas of the county and in helping the Area Team in the process of patient engagement with regard to dental services.
We are also keen to encourage the involvement of members of the primary dental care team in research. If you have an interest in carrying out research into a particular area of dentistry then the network would hope to provide you with support and advice. In general it is extremely difficult to carry out high quality research, worthy of publication in a journal, in isolation.
If you are undertaking an MSc or other higher degree or qualification that involves an element of research we would also be available to provide additional support and advice.
The next meeting of the R&D network is on the 20th July at 2.00 pm at the Preston Business Centre. Any member of the dental team with an interest in research can attend. Please contact Mark Pearce on oliver.pearce@tiscali.co.uk if you would like to attend the meeting or just want to discuss the subject.
Mark Pearce
Lead, Lancashire dental R&D network
Routine Care Network - Developing the GDPs
To develop GDPs within the Routine Care Network, please see the following job listings:
• Associate Dean Dental Core Training - https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/search_vacancy/82c2b4f9ebc01b860c19719a606f1d62/
• TPD Foundation - https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/search_vacancy/4e9ae280b7f48673edc71ede10ba25ec/
Kind regards
Nicholas Taylor
Dean of Postgraduate Dental Education
Health Education North West
Vice Chairman of COPDEND
LDC Conference:
The LDC Conference was held in London on Friday 12th June; attended by John Edwards and Stuart Johnson from Lancashire Coastal LDC, and by Mike Jolly and Bruce Porteus from Central Lancashire LDC.
The full report is available on the LDC Website, the agenda included a report from the Chairman of the GDPC (Henrik Overguaard Nielson) about the NHS New Contract Pilots and Prototypes, followed by a presentation from NHS England about the Pilots and Prototypes. Many motions were debated, around the GDC, the Red Tape faced by the profession, and difficulties faced by small practices. John Milne (The ex Chairman of GDPC) addressed the Conference in his new role as Chief Dental Adviser to the CQC about the new inspection regime, and aims of the CQC in regulating practices, and we had a presentation by the NHS BSA on the current drive on probity and fraud reduction.
Website Updates
www.lancashireldc.co.uk
Liaison Meeting - The Area Team / LDC Liaison Meeting minutes for 17th June 2015 are available on the website.
GDPC - John Edwards’ report from the GDPC meeting on 11th June is now available.
LDC Conference - as mentioned above, the report from the LDC conference is available to view on the website.
Referrals - The Referral Management Centre (RMC) based at Preston will no longer be processing referrals for Ortho and Special Care Dentistry. They are to continue triaging referrals for Minor Oral Surgery (MOSS) Referral is to be sent directly to patient chosen provider from 22/6/15. I am working to keep the referral information on the LDC website up to date, so please check this for any changes.
As always, if you have any information to post, issues with the newsletter or website access, please just get in touch by emailing me! admin@lancashirecoastalldc.co.uk NB Many email services, especially Hotmail, will eat much of your email. If you register for the website, you may well find your confirmation email in your SPAM folder.
Regards,
Stuart
Stuart Johnson BDS
Lancashire Coastal LDC - Communications Lead.