What is in a name?

We’re now a few weeks into the new health system in England. The last two months have been a mixture of opportunity and chaos which is not unexpected with such large scale change. Most patients will not have experienced any real difference at the front line, and those visiting an NHS dentist will probably have received the same care and attention that they would have done in March. Already, organisations have changed their names. For example, Clinical Commissioning Groups have adopted the prefix NHS; and the NHS Commissioning Board has been rebranded as NHS England. However these changes in name are unlikely to make any real difference to the delivery of care for patients in a dental setting.

One of the bigger changes for dentistry is that the chief dental officer (CDO) in England has moved from the Department of Health into NHS England. You may wonder what the significance of this is but in some ways it is the first time in recent years that the NHS will have some degree of independence from the Minister for Health.