Pramod Subbaraman discusses the ethical standards expected of dental professionals and if there needs to be a change in tactics when it comes to union representation.
As dentists we are aware of the high clinical and ethical standards expected of us. If ever we choose to forget, our professional regulator, the General Dental Council (GDC) would be right there to remind us of those standards in no uncertain terms. They govern not only what we do in clinical life, but also how we conduct ourselves in other areas of our lives. We could be investigated by the GDC for any perceived failings in those areas.
However, I have recently found that our union, the British Dental Association, may be singing from a different hymn sheet. It isn’t news to anyone in UK dentistry that NHS dentistry has been a favourite topic of discussion for the UK media recently.
But I see this untruth being sold to the media by our union about there being sufficient dentists in England. I can’t remember a time in the past twenty years or even longer when that was ever the case.
It is true that there is a shortage of dentists willing to work under the UDA type NHS contracts in England. But why is our union pretending that any contract would bring ex-NHS dentists back into the NHS? Or even that there are sufficient dentists in England to provide for the primary dental care needs of the entire population?
I work in Hull, Grimsby, and Scunthorpe, and I can tell you that it is clearly not the case here.
Unenviable task
We have been unable to fill vacancies for several years. When anyone leaves a practice or the NHS we can never get a replacement for all their hours worked. This has been confirmed when speaking with colleagues around the country. It was the case long before Brexit or COVID19 were factors in the equation.
I then set up a poll on twitter, which was open to the public. I asked if a union such as ours (a union of regulated professionals) should hold ourselves to higher standards in our union work or if it were sufficient that we behaved like other traditional unions who may use whatever methods they felt were justified to achieve their ends.
Of the twenty six people who voted, 65.4% supported the view that we should hold ourselves to higher standards. The remaining 34.6% believe that we may behave like any other union.
Now, I understand that negotiating on our behalf with government is an unenviable task. Given our current government’s standards – if one could call those standards by such a name – untruths and subterfuge may not appear to be as underhanded as they should to any sentient being with higher faculties. But aren’t we the people who set standards for ourselves and should we allow our union to adopt such strategies?
The truth will out. We must consider that when it does, such tactics will only harm our reputation as a profession.
Response
BDA chair Eddie Crouch said: ‘To be clear the government has simply not done their homework to establish whether we have “enough” dentists.
‘Workforce planning is non-existent. There is no estimate on the whole-time equivalent workforce, or an up-to-date snapshot patient need.
‘What we know is while dentists on the register are at an all-time high, a growing number are not seeing their future in the NHS.
‘For us it is a simple matter of priority. Do you try and fix the leaky bucket that is NHS dentistry, or keep trying to fill it? We know where we stand.’
