Last Friday evening around 5 pm I joined the BAPD.
I resisted or held back or didn’t, but I first saw this new Facebook group/ Association emerge in the middle of lockdown.
I had a public discussion on Chris Barrows Thursday night webinar with Simon Thackeray about how you can’t have an association just because you have a Facebook group.
I watched with interest (was it interest?) to see the strategy or the tactics that the group would adopt to try and make some sort of positive difference out of the sh*t show that we found ourselves in.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t come from a position of judgment, I only come from a position of interest for someone who was deep and heavily involved in dental politics at the turn of the millennium and well into the noughties as a chairman of a local dental committee and an oral health advisory group and on the board of the British Association of Surgical Dentists and on the General Dental Practice committee.
I would travel to London for GDPC meetings which were at the ‘highest level of negotiation in dentistry’.
I got thoroughly fed up by the antics and the nonsense of the people involved who were making little or no difference but enjoying their trips to London.
Forgive me if I was cynical about the BAPD.
In the early stages the BAPD started off as you would expect, shouting as loud as they could to gain some traction and get some noise.
It’s safe to say I didn’t agree with everything that was said and so I kept my powder dry or at least my £25.
I have changed my mind.
Not afraid to say that I have changed my mind.
As I’ve said many times before, the profession needs to galvanize itself and it will be galvanized by no one else.
There are many fronts that it needs to battle in order to regain it’s position as a profession and many battles that need to be fought.
We must be represented in our discussions with the CQC, we must be represented in our discussions with the GDC, we must be represented in our discussions with the CDO, we must be represented in many areas with a strong and united voice which comes from an ethical background with undertones always, always of looking our for the patient in the first instance.
Dentistry looked disgusting in many aspects during lockdown and that was noticed by many.
With a new association, with fresh ideas and with the opportunity to write a constitution and to start from scratch. We have another chance to reinvent ourselves as a profession that we would love to be when we get to the other side.
I paid £25 on Friday to show my support and I think that you should too if you work in dentistry.
Numbers are all that matter here.
We need numbers to show support for the battles that are to come.
I don’t care if you work in private practice, 53% of dentistry is carried out in private practice.
Much more aspects of dentistry will be carried out in private practice come the other side of the pandemic.
It won’t be perfect, and they won’t get it right all of the time but they might well be your best chance for correct representation in a post-Covid world.
You can join here.
Blog Post Number - 2517
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