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LDC CONFERENCE 2022 - Welcome to Wales.

It is a great honour to be welcoming delegates to Newport for this year’s Annual Conference of Local Dental Committees, which will be held at the International Conference Centre Wales with dinner on Thursday 9 June and Conference on Friday 10 June.

Why Newport? As you may know, I hail originally from Low Fell in Gateshead. To cut a very long story short, I have worked just a stone’s throw from the venue, in Ringland, for the past 13 years. Given the level of support my colleagues in Wales have offered it seemed fitting that I should chair Conference here in the Land of Song.

Newport is a city with a proud industrial past in steelmaking and coal, now finding its way in a very different world. It is perhaps best known in history for being the setting of a violent night in the history of the development of British democracy. In 1839 thousands of Chartists, whose demands included extension of the voting franchise beyond the landed gentry, descended upon Newport after the imprisonment of some of their number in the Westgate Hotel; a bloody battle ensued.

I am so pleased and proud that we were able to keep Conference going in virtual form during the pandemic. It was imperative that the profession did not lose its voice at such a critical time and that those holding the purse strings could be challenged and held to account, whilst LDC representatives could direct GDPC to the issues that mattered most.

I wish I could say that the pandemic had finally illustrated to the governments of the UK the crisis that had already set in prior to 2020. Whilst there have been some rays of hope, the shadows of despair that have held our profession back for so long show no sign of abating. The recruitment crisis is deepening and funding in real terms has reduced over and over again, whilst unrealistic targets and metrics are applied. There is still much talk of ‘incentivising’ dentists to do the right thing, where merely avoiding penalties and clawback by the state are often the reality. The added expectation by some patients that they can buy the ‘perfect smile’, the resulting impact of dental tourism and the aggressive marketing of direct-to-patient dentistry creates the recipe for a perfect storm.

We have some very talented, caring and committed people in our profession and there is always hope so long as that remains true. I am asking those of you who are old hands at Conference to reach out to those attending in person for the first time, whoever they may be. Having new faces with fresh ideas is essential to the evolution of any movement and we have tried to make this one of the key themes of Conference this year.

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LDC CONFERENCE 2022 – Plans taking shape

International Conference Centre, Wales

 

Conference Dinner – Thursday 9 June 2022

Conference – Friday 10 June 2022 

I hope that, like me, you are excited by the prospect of finally having the chance to see everyone again.

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LDC CONFERENCE 2022 – Registration Now Open!

International Conference Centre, Wales

 

Conference Dinner – Thursday 9 June 2022

Conference – Friday 10 June 2022 

I hope that, like me, you are excited by the prospect of finally having the chance to see everyone again.

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Dan Cook - Conference Chair 2022

A message from in-coming Conference Chair, Dan Cook

Hello everyone

It is a great honour to accept these chains of office. Thank you Stuart for being at the helm through this unprecedented time.

So where do we start for 2022? As I promised my Welsh friends and supporters, we plan to base next year's conference in Wales. I've worked in Newport for the past 12 years and we hope to deliver an event there; but making any firm plans at the moment is not easy as I am sure you all know first-hand.

I was one of those who pushed for Conference to continue in a digital format throughout the pandemic. I know some of you were not keen on the idea (and perhaps you are still not convinced) but I hope we have managed to bring you along with us. We, as GDPs, need more than ever to have our voices heard.

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