Despite widespread
disquiet expressed this week on the news that Dental Tsar, Ray Watkins was to go part-time
to teach, The Executive was quick to reassure Scots worried about the parlous state of NHS
dentistry that the move was entirely consistent with the future direction of access to
dental services.Contacted for comment by The JT, a Health spokesfilling said:
"With many Scots unable to find an NHS dentist to register with, there’s been a
lot of ill-informed speculation over the move to allow Mr Watkins to return to teaching.
What this initiative marks is the first stage in the Executive’s bold strategy to
renovate NHS dentistry - the trend towards part-time dentists."
The new policy will see dentists, currently contracted to provide NHS funded services,
encouraged to take up other jobs, "Perhaps, in the future, dentists can work in other
fields to make up their wages, there’s always shifts going begging in call-centres
you know."
The Executive does agree however that the policy shift will result in an realignment of
resources, "We’re aiming to create a 24/7 service: as in everyone will only be
able to see their dentist on the 24th of July. Miss your appointment and
you’re completely donald ducked."
However it's not all bad news, with the crisis in dentistry getting worse by the day,
there are likely to be loads of opportunities for hard-pressed sub-editors to dust off
their dentally-related clichés in thinking up headlines, likely to contain such gems as
"gaps", "filling", "bridges", "amalgamation"
and so on and so forth.
