Chief Dental Officer Urges Government To Keep Promises
Chief dental officer for England, Barry Cockcroft, has urged the government to keep their promises to reform the dental care system. Mr Cockcroft said that successful pilot projects must be used to shape the future dental contract and improve working conditions for dentists and dental care for patients.
Speaking in an interview with ITN, Mr Cockcroft said that successful pilot projects have shown that changes to the current dental contract would result in better outcomes for dentists and patients and the findings must be noticed and respected by the government. The government set out plans to revise and modernise the current dental contract, which was brought in by the Labour party, when the coalition came to power; the contract has received widespread criticism and proposals for a shake-up were welcomed by dental organisations.
Mr Cockcroft said that many new initiatives have been very successful. Since 2007, there has been a 63 per cent increase in the number of fluoride varnish treatments and feedback on this particular venture has been very positive from dentists and hygienists.
Currently, there is a major pilot programme underway to trial new ways of payment for dentists, a new focus on preventative care for patients and a traffic light system, which would enable dentists to give patients feedback about their oral hygiene in a bid to make people more aware of their responsibilities when it comes to oral health.
Join this Discussion