Hello Lancashire and South Cumbria, Well here we are in the Lakes for a week on a Mrs A “Challenge Week.” The weather is rubbish but that suits Mrs A as it represents more of a challenge. No hiding for me or our little Staffie. Special Forces Ultimate Hell Week has got nothing on this! LDC Exec Boundaries: following the re-alignment of the NHS England Area Team footprint to include South Cumbria, the LDC Exec (flexible as ever!) have realigned to match the footprint. All LDC Exec communication will now extend to South Cumbria including mailings and website. Memory Lane: turning the clock back even further in this series to my entry into Dental School. Quite a daunting prospect for a “Coastal Bumpkin” like myself who was not used to city life! My first choice was Leeds and I duly turned up for my interview full of trepidation and wondering what the heck they were going to ask me. As it turned out as soon as they realised I had been in the Lancashire Under 19 Rugby Squad the whole conversation was about rugby. What position I played, what I thought about 15 man rugby and would I be available to play for Leeds Medics should I be allowed into the Dental School! The rest is history but they were interesting days Capita: following all the issues with Capita the LDC Exec invited their “Customer Relations” chap to one of our Liaison Meetings to talk about how they were going to improve services. He admitted that they got the staffing levels wrong and this has now been amended. Other measures had been put in place to improve performance and the processing of List Applications. We will wait and see but he has agreed to come back later in the year to review how things are going. I must stress that the only way we can move this forward as the Exec is to get feedback from all of you out there so keep the emails coming in – Bernard@lancashirecoastalldc.co.uk CQC Issues: there have been recent issues with CQC visits particularly with respect to the way the meetings are handled and how little credit is given where things are right. We have some documented evidence to raise with them and because we do have six-monthly attendance of the CQC at our Liaison Meetings we will follow this up. Again if you do have issues let me know and I can then have a portfolio of evidence – Bernard@lancashirecoastalldc.co.uk DPASS: the Exec supported DPASS scheme is now up and running and we have a few cases on the go at present. Following the campaign to move back more to Local Resolution and avoid unnecessary Fitness to Practice Hearings, dentists are often emerging from the process with either warnings or advice from the GDC. This then comes to the Performers Advisory Group (PAG); which is a good thing because it is being brought back into the Local Resolution Arena however PAG then need to have a means in place to close the case. DPASS fulfils this function ideally as once a DPASS meeting has been held and an action plan agreed PAG can draw a line underneath the case and sign off the practitioner. There are other areas of referral to DPASS but the aim is the same i.e. to close the case and take the dentist off the radar at the Area Team. As the Exec we have worked closely with PAG to ensure all processes in place are robust and will achieve the necessary sign-off. Audit responsibility: please do look out for the RCN audits coming out. I know the progress has been slow but unfortunately that is just down to the system! Radiographic Prescribing will be next. As always the audits are supportive and aimed at ensuring practitioners comply with regulations and stay out of trouble. RCN Local Champions: coming out soon will be the contact spreadsheet for the RCN Local Champions in order to ensure communication is maintained around all aspects of clinical support for the profession in Lancashire and South Cumbria. This information will be landing soon so please do have a read of it and make contact with your Local Champion. (The list of Local Champions is on the website, along with their email addresses, for you to make contact - ed) Thanks to Stuart: those from across the patch who are on the egroup and visit the website will see for themselves the tremendous effort Stuart Johnson, the Exec Communications Lead, puts into our communications network. Stuart now works closely with the Area Team to ensure the profession across the patch is kept up to date with all matters dental. If you know of a colleague that is not registered with the communications network please encourage them to take advantage of what is a tremendous resource. One more thing: Facebook: personally I am not on Facebook. I neither have the time or the inclination. Mrs A is on Face Book and shows me some of the posts people put on there. The part that intrigues me is “Photo Shopping” – what the hell is this all about! We have some neighbours who post endless “Selfies” of themselves which they “Photo Shop.” The thing is that they look absolutely nothing like they do in real life! Some people also lie about where they are, what they have done or where they are going! How on earth can you live such a false life? Observations from Mrs A: Our Postman, John, is one of those people that really makes a big deal of things that are simple. He comes down the close like he is in the Marines and sees every delivery as entering a combat zone. All obstacles are in his way as he sees it and continually points out how he has got the mail through against all odds. His pledge to all is “The Mail must get through.” (a bit like the Pony Express in Wild West Days!). I might add that the obstacles in his way are such things as the wind, the rain, his co- postman who he says is a “nugget” or tricky letter boxes – so we are not talking about serious “anti postman” incoming fire! One of the areas he specialises in (so he says) is training new staff and he repeatedly says he is the best in the business and they are lucky if they get him as their trainer. The other day he appeared striding down the close like Ant Middleton off the “SAS selection series” and “Mutiny” accompanied by – wait for it – a trainee. The trainee was being subjected to Johns usual over the top instruction. I said to Mrs A that I had seen this going on and joked that it must be a great experience for the new lad. Mrs A’s comment was - “can’t beat that for a life changing experience it has to be even better than swimming with Dolphins!” That’s all for now folks Bernard Bernard Alston Sec Lancs & S Cumbria LDC Exec