Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

Lasers - Whitening - Cameras - Curing Lights Visit www.quicklase.com Call us 01227 780009 OFF o O QLQW40%Mag231211RG Upto a Whopping of my colleagues. We carry out diagnosis by proxy on a daily basis and in many cases will be the first person to mention to a patient that there is pocket- ing and inflammation (notice the subtle difference here; we tend not to tell them they have a periodontitis). If we are to work to a pre- scription then this in itself is somewhat of a quandary; the GDC in its Standards Guidance tells us that a treatment plan from a dentist could be “out- line” or “detailed”. Again this presents problems on a daily basis because I am then left to decide the direction of treat- ment and to decide what treat- ment the patient needs without any clue from the GDP. Perhaps this is a trust issue and the GDPs I work for trust my judgement, skill and abilities? I’m not sure if this is true because I have walked into practices as a new member of the team and still had the same issue! There is plenty of anecdo- tal evidence that this is wanted by patients; the GDC regularly has patients contacting them wanting to know why they have to see a dentist first as do thepracticesIworkin.Reception at one practice receives on aver- age three or four telephone calls a month from patients wanting to book in for a hygienist appoint- ment, only to be told they can- not as there is no valid prescrip- tion in the notes and to get that they must have an examination with their GDP; frustrating for all involved I’m sure you would agree? I do not think direct access is quite the issue many are making it. There are so few that want to open their own practice and the vast majority perhaps just want the ability to see a long stand- ing patient without having to go through the rigmarole in- timated to previously? They will screen for disease and advise the patient appropri- ately because to not do so would be unethical. Whilst this piece does not allow me to explore the whole “pro” ar- gument in any great detail, I do hope it has made many think? There are lots of issues and there are those that perhaps could present this argument in a much better way. The above is my opinion only; I choose not to be a member of the various rep- resentative bodies but that does not make my opinion any less valid and I thank Dental Tribune for giving me a forum in which to do so. DT ‘There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that DA is wanted by patients; the GDC regularly has patients’ Diagnosis by proxy? About the author Shaun trained and qualified in the Royal Army Dental Corps in 1993. He works in the NHS and privately full time in Derbyshire and Nottingham- shire. He sat on the GDC Fitness to Practise Panel from 2003-2008 at which time he became one of three DCP Local Advisers to Dental Protection Ltd; he is also a Key Opinion Leader for Philips Sonicare and is currently training in Mentor- ship to become part of their Transi- tional Support Program. Shaun has a keen interest in Clinical Governance and is an FGDP trained practice ap- praiser. He currently sits on the Edito- rial Board of DH&T and Dental Trib- une and contributes to these often. He has spoken widely to groups all across the UK drawing on his experiences on FtP and his work with Dental Protec- tion. 9News & OpinionUnited Kingdom Edition January 23-28, 2012