Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

PUBLISHED IN LONDON September 3-9, 2012 VOL. 6 NO. 21 According to a recent poll, dentists offer the best cus- tomer service of any profes- sion. Out of the 1,000 people who took part in the survey, 47 per cent of people rated dentists highly, followed by waiters, who received 30 per cent of the votes and doc- tors, who took 27 per cent of the vote. According to the report, gym staff are among the worst to deliver custom- er service, while 40 per cent of people think council staff have a bad attitude. Police, hospital workers and shop assistants were also rated badly, as were post office staff. The poll concluded that people are more than twice as likely to receive good cus- tomer service from dentists as they are from bar staff; so it’s good news for dentists! Oz tobacco decision The British Dental Health Foundation has welcomed the decision by the Austral- ian High Court to reject the legal challenge by the to- bacco industry against the tobacco plain packaging leg- islation. The new Australian law will require cigarettes to be sold in olive green pack- ets, with graphic images warning of the consequences of smoking. The new legisla- tion, which will be enforced in Australia by 1 December 2012, means that all tobacco products must be in plain packaging. This will restrict tobacco industry logos, brand imagery, colours and pro- motional text appearing on packs. Brand and product names will be in a standard colour, position and standard font size and style. Dental Commissioning Sta- tistics, England - June 2012 The DoH has released sta- tistics showing the volume of UDAs commissioned by Primary Care Trusts as at the end of each quarter, for the preceding 12 months. Key findings this quarter in- clude: All 151 Commission- ers (PCTs and Care Trusts) returned data; 89.1 million UDAs have been commis- sioned as at 30th June 2012; This represents a decrease of 686,000 (0.76 per cent) on the UDAs commissioned as at 31th March 2012; The to- tal UDAs commissioned as at 30th June 2012 is 87,000 higher (0.10 per cent in- crease) than the UDAs com- missioned as at 30th June 2011. Dental Contracts Statis- tics can be viewed at: https:// www.wp.dh.gov.uk/trans- parency/2012/08/08/dental- commissioning_june12/ Neel Kothari looks at a dental mission in West Africa Oliver Harman discusses the MSc So how do you keep your key- board germ free? News in Brief Education Tribune FeatureFeatureNews September is Colgate Oral Health Month page 2 pages 8-9 pages 13-14 page 27 N The decrease is detailed in one of two new reports pub- lished by the Health and So- cial Care Information Centre (HSCIC). The other report, on dentists’ working hours to 2011/12, suggests their average weekly hours have gradually increased. Dental Earnings and Expens- es, England and Wales, 2010/11 reported that in 2010/11 taxable income (gross earnings minus average expenses) from NHS and private dentistry was: primary care dentists who held a contract with their primary care trust (England) or local health board (Wales) – known as providing-performer den- tists (who make up about 28 per cent of the primary care dental workforce). This is an 8.5 per 2009/10 primary care dentists who work in a practice but do not hold a contract – known as perform- er only dentists and who make up the majority (about 72 per cent) of the primary care den- tal workforce. This is a 4.2 per 2009/10 The report also showed that when both groups were consid- ered together: 2010/11 compared to 55.8 per cent in 2009/10 earned a taxable income of at pared to 310 (1.5 per cent) in 2009/10 Dental Working Hours, Eng- land and Wales, 2010/11 and 2011/12, also published recently, is based on a survey sample of both full and part time provid- ing-performer and performer only dentists carrying out NHS work in primary care. It pro- vides context to the earnings figures and suggests: there were gradual increases in average weekly hours. For pro- viding-performer dentists hours increased from 39.6 to 41.9 hours (smaller increase for per- former only dentists), the main factor being a gradual increase in the proportion of time spent on non-clinical work (23.8 per cent in 2011-12) former and performer only dentists reported working an overall average of 37.5 hours per week in dentistry, of which 28.1 hours (74.8 per cent) were devoted to NHS dental services. The remainder, 25.2 per cent, was accounted for by private dentistry HSCIC chief executive Tim Straughan said: “These figures show dentists on average have seen a drop in their income, with those that hold a contract with a Primary Care Trust or Lo- cal Health Board seeing a fall in “This information will of course be of use to dentists but also other groups including the public and policy makers. Cou- pled with today’s other report that suggests a gradual increase in dental working hours, this information highlights chang- es taking place to the working lives of primary care dentists.” Dental Earnings and Ex- penses, England and Wales, 2010/2011 presents earnings and expenses results by Strate- gic Health Authority in England, age and gender. It is at www. ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dentalearn- exp1011 Dental Working Hours, Eng- land and Wales, 2010/11 and 2011/12 can be found at www. ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dentalworking- hours1012 DT