Hello Lancashire
Happy New Year to you all – I do hope Santa brought you everything you wished for. Top of my wish list to be snapped up by someone was my GDC Registration - a great stocking filler and a definite snip at just £890, but sadly no takers this year; we live in hope for 2016! Appointments update: congratulations to Eric Rooney on his appointment as Deputy Chief Dental Officer. Eric will still remain as Chair of the Lancashire Local Dental Network and Mel Catleugh has been appointed Consultant in Dental Public Health for Lancashire. Eric is now CDPH for Cumbria. DBOH (Delivery Better Oral Health) Event: we had in excess of 120 attendees at the recent DBOH event hosted by the Local Dental Network and supported by Colgate. We had some good speakers including a debut presentation from Shaz Tahir from East Lancs on his personal experience of DBOH at practice level. This event followed on from the “Audience with the LDN” in March of this year and the intention is to look to make these sort of events a regular occurrence so watch out for the next one and “Book Early!!!” CQC update: Andy Cow (Sec Central Lancs LDC, Nick Barkworth and myself had a teleconference with the CQC Dental Lead for the North West. The idea was to establish a collaborative working arrangement with the CQC and to meet on a quarterly basis. We had a very constructive meeting in the true spirit of joint working and the CQC are keen to get feedback from the profession with respect to CQC visits. I have included below some bullet points from the meeting and have set up a CQC section on the LDC website for future reference. Please feel free to feedback to me on any CQC experiences good or bad – our next meeting should be around March time • 10% of dental practices will be inspected per annum • The practices will be selected randomly with the exception of practices where risk issues have been identified • 2 weeks notice will always be given again with the exception of practices with identified risk issues • If the suggested date is inconvenient then the visit will be re-arranged • Visits will never be unannounced with the exception of practices with identified risk issues • Notice of the required information for the visit will be supplied in good notice • Normally the Practice manager will be the main contact for the CQC at the visit • The inspection teams will always include a dental professional • Patients may be spoken to at the visit • The CQC will inform the area Team if remedial action is required The intention as mentioned above is that we will use the CQC section on the LDC website for reference and be able to feed back on comments from the CQC plus any advice etc. The CQC have produced a “Myth Buster” bullet list and we will include this on the website. Appraisal: following a number of meetings and discussions across the current appraisers in both Lancashire and Greater Manchester the appraisal scheme is set to be re-launched in a different, renamed format with revised more user friendly paperwork. More information will be available shortly. Call to Arms: this is my hobbyhorse at present and you will be pleased to hear does not involve shooting anything! I had an opportunity to address the DBOH meeting with my thoughts and would like to extend this to all of you out there. The basic principle is that in these times of change when we are not sure where the commissioning responsibility for dentistry will sit (and also potentially with a bunch of medics!!) it is essential that we as a profession get behind those elements of dental representation that will proceed into the future and be able to represent the profession in a positive manner. The two elements are the Local Dental Committees (as represented by the Lancs LDC Exec) and the Lancashire Local Dental Network. What we need is for all members of all the areas of the dental profession to get behind the Local Dental Network as this is the vehicle which we will push forward as the commissioning vehicle for the future of dentistry and the ultimate guidance to whichever commissioning organisation emerges to host the dental budget. More on this into 2016 but please do ensure you give your support. Just one more thing. Selfie sticks – what the heck is this all about! People post “selfies” on Facebook taken with their mobile phones on the end of a long stick known as a “Selfie Stick” – are we for real? These self portraits involve the person screwing up their face as if they were sucking a lemon and because the picture is taken from on high the overall effect is one of slimming down the subject. The giveaway for this distorted effect however is that their feet appear to be about an inch long! In order however to keep abreast of the times we as the Lancs LDC Exec are hosting a county wide selfie-stick photographic competition. Entrants are asked to submit their selfie to Stuart and all will be posted on the website. We have great prizes to be won as follows 1st Prize - a place on “Special Forces Ultimate Hell Week” 2nd Prize – a place on “Special Forces Ultimate Hell Fortnight” 3rd Prize – a signed leather bound copy of Delivering Better Oral Health (version 3) All that remains is to wish you all a most Happy and Prosperous New Year from the Lancashire LDC Executive and Stuart as Communications Lead. Have a good one!! Bernard Bernard Alston Sec Lancs LDC Exec
Orthodontic Referrals in Central Lancs and Blackpool
We recently sent out a flyer regarding referrals to Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, however this does not apply to orthodontic referrals. Orthodontic referrals to Blackpool Teaching Hospitals still need to be addressed directly to Joanna Dancer at the Orthodontic Dept in BVH Outpatients on referral pro forma B (latest version available from the Library/Referrals page of the website) as she has to paper triage them all before they go through the hospital systems (that doesn't happen in other medical specialties). The commissioners are going to send out a Lancashire IOTN sheet including the IOTN Aesthetic component picture with a letter to all GDPs in Lancashire regarding the primary care Orthodontic Waiting list paper revalidation that is going to be done by the Specialists. (The IOTN sheet is already available on the LDC Website) It is important that GDPs read their local referral guidelines in conjunction with the IOTN sheet for more details of what is accepted at the local hospital unit. The Orthodontic LPN are in the process of making this as uniform as possible across Lancashire from 1st April 2016 and are trying to simplify the referrals process as much as possible. There will be an opportunity for GDPs to tell the LAT that they would like more training in IOTN , and that will then be arranged - but previous courses were stopped when GDPs stopped registering, implying that everyone who wanted training had had it. The hospital units will see IOTN 4 patients for assessment and advice but may not be able to take them all on for treatment - if treatment is easy then they may suggest that the patient is referred to a primary care provider for the treatment - this may partly depend on whether the hospital unit has trainees etc. but all hospital units will see IOTN 5 and other patients with complex problems for assessment within the 18 week target.
Website Updates
Hi everyone, Lots of updates and new information on the website for you ;-) The Library now has a new section for the CQC – information and updates will be added as we get them. The Library/Education section has now become Library/Guidelines, Pathways & Education, where you will find links to Delivering Better Oral Health, and new guidelines from the Routine Care Network. The following pathways have been developed for Periodontal Health, Periodontal Risk, Periodontal Disease, and Advanced Periodontal Disease. Henrik’s Home Truths – Updates & news from Henrik Overguarrd Nielson - Chairman of GDPC is now available on the Library homepage. John Edwards attended the LDC Officials Day on 4th December, along with Andrew Cow and Bruce Porteous. His report is now available on the Library homepage. Liaison Meeting Minutes (LDC Exec with the Local Area Team) are now available in the Area Team section of the Library. Performers List Documents are available on the Library/Area-Team page. Guidance for the performer list that will be used at the area team re voluntary undertakings and conditions for joining the performer list, and a document from the deanery about Foundation Training by assessed period, which is mostly aimed at overseas applicants, are both available for download. Central Lancashire MOS (Minor Oral Surgery) documents have been updated. You can now access (on the Library/Referrals page): • Central Lancs referral guidance for oral surgery • Central Lancs referral form • Two “How to” guides - Add details in DBSWin - Add Name and DOB to OPG • The letter for all GDPs Hope you all have a great 2016, let me know if I can help in any way (particularly if this involves issues with the website!) Regards, Stuart Stuart Johnson BDS Lancashire Coastal LDC / Communication Lead. P.S. Selfie Sticks - Bernard; you know that moment when you pass someone your camera to take a photo, and they promptly hold it upside down and press the off button instead of the shutter? That's what selfie-sticks are for - you can do it yourself ;-) Would you like to borrow one?
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