50 Lashes by the GDC – Time for Change at the GDC?

I graduated from Glasgow University in 1995 and after a VT year in Maryhill, in 1996, I joined a large family practice with nine surgeries in Hamilton, just 12 miles south-east of Glasgow. The practice was established in the 1930s and most of our patients had been with us for many years.

I was lucky, as the older partners encouraged myself and my two fellow associates to further our education. We took turns and each went back to Glasgow Dental School and did a Masters Degree run by Professor Trevor Burke and Dr Crawford Bain. It was hard work but great fun. We got a good education, learned new skills and made life-long friends.

We went back to Hamilton and started looking after the patients to the best of our abilities. The older partners retired, the younger guys took over. Over the years we refurbished the practice, went fully computerized, moved to the ground floor, went digital and built a dental laboratory in the basement. Of course, not everything worked. We had our failures, that is part and parcel of the job. When they happened, we managed them by saying sorry to the patient, reassuring them that we were trying our best and giving a full refund of any monies paid – no debate. Patients knew we were trying our best and were happy with this. We realized we learned more from the failures than from the successes.