Dental Tribune United Kindom Edition

PUBLISHED IN LONDON H ealth Minister for Northern Ireland Ed- win Poots has informed Members of the Legislative Assembly of the results of an inquiry that has uncovered ev- idence that shortcomings may have led to serious deficiencies in the standards of care afford- ed to patients at Belfast Dental Hospital. The inquiry was instigated in February 2011 by the then Health Minister and was led by Brian Fee QC, following a recall of 117 patients by the oral medicine service at the hospital. It has emerged that 22 of those patients were either diagnosed or referred far later than recommended and that they represented a ‘major con- cern’. It was found that difficul- ties in one department arose from excessive workloads and a lack of adequate administra- tive support and further prob- lems uncovered included 1156 unfiled items, 93 missing charts, 161 ‘hospital concerns’ and problems with the ap- pointment system. The inquiry made a total of 45 recommen- dations and the Belfast Trust maintains that it has learned ‘valuable lessons’ from the ex- perience. Both Poots and Chief Ex- ecutive of the Belfast Trust Colm Donaghy have offered their apologies to the patients and have professed an under- standing of the “serious de- ficiencies” in the oral medi- cine department. Donaghy maintained that the Trust has always acted in the best inter- ests of its patients and stated: “The extent of the impact that delay in diagnosis or refer- ral had on the outcome...is unknown at this stage… ac- cording to the report a Seri- ous Adverse Incident Com- plaint should have been raised earlier and we accept that. We also accept that in terms of communicating and escalat- ing the issue we should have done that at an earlier stage in terms of the former processes, to keep others informed in terms of the progress that was being made. “What I would have to say is the people involved in this did not deliberately keep this issue secret or quiet, they were concerned about continuing to provide care for the patients involved and always acted in the interests of those patients.” Poots declared the situ- ation to represent an unac- ceptable failure on the part of the Trust and warned that such a situation “cannot be permitted to happen again”. The Chair of the Assembly Health Committee Michelle Gildernew also drew attention to the seriousness of the events and Conall McDevitt of the SDLP stated that he could not think of a more serious situation involving a single trust. The results of the inquiry can be viewed at www.dhssp- sni.gov.uk/executive_summa- ry_dental_inquiry.pdf DT Prices you can smile about NEW 20 PAGE OFFER SHEET OUT NOW, CALL 0800 132 373 OR DOWNLOAD FROM www.topdental.orgOffers valid 1st July - 30th Sept 2011. Microbrushes Pack of 400 Offer price £12.95 NEW Our HOT Summer Offers are here !!20 pages of fantastic money saving offers for your surgery TX-7 RA Slow Speed Handpieces Special Summer Offer : Buy 2 get 1 FREE Equivalent to just £43.00 each BUY 2 GET 1 FREE SPE0001 - Pack of 250 disposable 3 in 1 syringe tips RRP £38.90 Summer Price Only £19.45 save 50 % REQUEST YOUR FREE SAMPLE Spectrum Tips Check our prices immediately - from your phone! Dental Tribune_June2011.indd 1 17/6/11 11:43:18 July 18-24, 2011 VOL. 5 NO. 17 Rock legend celebrates NHS birthday Rock star Ozzy Osbourne led tributes in celebration of the 63rd birthday of the NHS. Born in Birmingham in 1948, the same year the NHS was created, the Black Sabbath front man was one of the first generation to be delivered by NHS doctors. He was also treated by emergency serv- ices and the NHS when he was rushed to intensive care in Slough, following a near fatal accident in 2003. Ozzy Osbourne had this message for NHS staff: “If it wasn’t for the hardworking staff of the NHS following my seri- ous quad bike accident I may not be here today to continue my career. I want to say a big thank you to all of the dedi- cated doctors, nurses and everyone else who makes up the NHS across the country.” No exhibits, we’re Canadian The majority of dentists in Canada find it difficult to make time to visit dental ex- hibitions, figures in a new re- port by the country’s Dental Industry Association suggest. More than 70 per cent of the dentists surveyed said they spent less than three hours on exhibition floors dur- ing conventions, while half said they spent two hours or fewer. included lack of time, attending lectures or courses, and social interaction with colleagues and peers. Den- tists from Ontario were more likely to visit a convention that had no associated exhibi- tion than dentists from other provinces. Most dentists said that they would visit more exhibitions if they were giv- en product samples or could watch hands-on demonstra- tions or other on-floor events. www.dental-tribune.co.uk In the name of education Elaine Halley on the life of an MSc student Radio limits Daniel Flynn talks radiography Decontamination A new wat to discover infection control News in Brief Endo Tribune EventsPractice ManagementNews Generation game Study shoes generational OH link page 4 page 8 pages 18-20 page 28 Inquiry reveals ‘shortcomings’ at Belfast Dental Hospital Lack of support and excessive workloads caused problems says report