21st January 2021 GG&C LDC Update

20 January 2021

LDC Elections; Covid Vaccine 2nd Doses; Quality Improvement

  1. LDC (GP Sub) ELECTIONS
    • The annual LDC election process has officially commenced
    • Officially, the election is for seats on the ‘GP Sub Committee of the Greater Glasgow an Clyde Area Dental Committee’… however, election to GPSub automatically confers a seat on the GG&C Local Dental Committee.
    • Please give serious consideration to standing for a seat on the committee.
      • You need only have your own GG&C list number to be eligible although all committee members are expected to bemandate holders
      • This includes principals, associates and specialist practitioners with a GG&C list number
    • You should have received nomination papers via your NHS email address yesterday morning (if you are eligible).
      • If you didn’t receive them you can use the above downloads or email our general secretary to request paper forms.
      • Please also email GDS admin and let them know that they don’t have the correct NHS email on file for your list number.
    • The  seats that are up for election this year are:
      • Renfrewshire and Inverclyde 2 SEATS
      • Dunbartonshire  2 SEATS
      • Glasgow North 3 SEATS
      • Glasgow South 3 SEATS
    • Check your constituency on these maps
    • Those who are elected must commit to attend monthly meetings of the GP Sub and LDC committees
      • These are held on the first Monday of every month at 7pm.
      • Representatives are reimbursed for their time.
    • The closing date for nominations is 12th February at 5pm
    • The LDC’s position in broader dental politics can be seen on this (simplified) hierarchy
    • If you are considering standing and would like to know more please email the committee and we will be happy to arrange a chat with a current LDC representative to talk over what is involved.
  2. SECOND DOSE COVID VACCINES
    • GG&C Health Board announced the timescales for 2nd Dose vaccines in a core brief 
    • You should receive an email or text with a link to book the next dose in the coming days.
    • Contact details for anyone experiencing issues are detailed in the core brief
    • The LAST CHANCE priority booking link for 1st doses is contained within the most recent GG&C Chief of Dentistry update. Please make sure you have shared this with everyone in your team.
  3. BECOMING A VACCINATOR
    • As mentioned in previous updates, you should have received an invitation to apply to join the staff bank for administering the covid vaccinations via your nhs email address
    • The process for training, applying and onboarding is currentlyextremely onerous
    • The LDC have given robust feedback on the inadequacies of this process to both the Health Board and to National representatives (via SDPC).
    • Scottish Government have now given the Boards a very clear directive to address the obstructive processes currently in place.
  4. QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
    • You may be aware that the CDO announced  that dentists no longer need to evidence 15 hours of Quality Improvement activity (audit, eSEA etc) for the current three year cycle (2019-22).
    • This is in recognition of the amount of work that has been put in to implementing the various SOPs and policies necessitated by the pandemic.
    • Recent NES comms state: “NES has been advised by the CDO, that the NES Portal should be closed to all further QI project applications for the 2019/2022 QI cycle. Accordingly, no applications are currently possible. He has however advised, that the exception to this is for those dentists who’s Health Board require them to make up a shortfall in their hours for the 2016/2019 QI cycle.”
  5. RENT REVALUATION
  6. PPE
    • NSS recently wrote to practices to inform them that the provision of free NHS PPE will be extended to June 30th 2021.
    • NSS are continuing to trial online ordering systems and hope to have these come online nationally in the coming weeks.
  7. LDC MANDATES
    • Please take the time to complete a mandate to support the continued work of GG&C LDC. The process is entirely online and takes no more than a minute.
    • It is important to note that if you have moved practice or changed list number your previous mandate will no longer be active and you should sign a new one with each change. If in doubt sign one anyway, you won’t increase your commitment if you accidentally duplicate your mandate.