Conference Of Local Dental Committees

It’s hard to believe its 2 years since I took over as Chair of the Scottish Conference for Local Dental Committees, however I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and as my tenure comes to a close I would recommend this role to any of my fellow colleagues.

The theme for conference was “Dentistry is changing.. but is it progressing?” and we had 3 key speakers -Monica Lennon MSP (Labour Shadow minister for Health and Sport), Matthew Hill (Executive Director within the GDC) and Phil McEvoy (BDA’s Head of Pensions) who gave excellent presentations followed by very productive “question and answer” sessions.

It was interesting to have the previous Cabinet Secretary (Shona Robison) speak to us at conference last year, and hearing the current oppositions view on Scottish dentistry when Monica Lennon addressed our delegates was also highly informative. We were encouraged to hear Monica commit to representing dentistry within Scottish Government and her enthusiasm to listen to our profession was appreciated.

As always a great deal of work is required to achieve a successful conference and my gratitude is extended to my Conference Agenda Committee, with special mention to Nicola and Elaine from the BDA team.

Once again our thanks for their continued support to conference goes to our sponsors: Braemar Finance, Condies, Denplan Simplyhealth, Wesleyan Medical Sickness and MDDUS. We look forward to welcoming you back next year!

Finally I would like to pass on my appreciation to all who contributed to our greatest ever charity collection (£800) which will be donated to Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland.

The donation this year is in support of our past chair to conference, John Craig BDS, who recently suffered a severe stroke. Our thoughts are with John as he continues his recovery.

Next year’s conference is on the 17th of April 2020 and I wish our new chair Judith Brady great success!