Chester V Afshar Law Case Review
DENTAL LAW IN PRACTICE
Introduction
I graduated in nineteen ninety three from the University of Sheffield. This seems like a long time ago now, however I have always strived towards my own constant personal development. During my training years at Sheffield if I am honest there was little or no training in Dental Law apart from a couple of lectures. On reflection I believe we were only just coming out of the era ‘where the clinician always knows best’. On graduation I did my vocational training in a single handed practice in a very small village in Yorkshire. I had a fantastic year with a great trainer. My trainer was approaching retirement which meant he had seen and done everything clinically and was always at hand to help and advise.
When I look back at that year I very much learnt about Dental Law as my trainer interpreted it. The following year I became an associate in a very busy NHS multisurgery practice. My colleagues here were very much of a different generation and I started to learn more about real Dental Law. Over the years and as my experience has grown I feel my understanding of Dental law has grown. Indeed the introduction of formal Continuing professional development and the inclusion of core subjects have expanded the professions knowledge. In the last ten years I have owned and developed my own multipractice group of dental practices which I have recently sold to a large corporate body. The last ten years saw a massive expansion in my business which led to more and more new dentist joining. I developed an induction programme and as a protection for my patients and my practice had a rigorous amount of dental law education included. This need for my business stimulated me more to learn and research dental law and ethics so I was in a position to impart some of this knowledge to our new dentists. I am now at a stage where I have more time for myself and hence why I have chosen to formalise my Dental law knowledge. I feel the
Introduction
I graduated in nineteen ninety three from the University of Sheffield. This seems like a long time ago now, however I have always strived towards my own constant personal development. During my training years at Sheffield if I am honest there was little or no training in Dental Law apart from a couple of lectures. On reflection I believe we were only just coming out of the era ‘where the clinician always knows best’. On graduation I did my vocational training in a single handed practice in a very small village in Yorkshire. I had a fantastic year with a great trainer. My trainer was approaching retirement which meant he had seen and done everything clinically and was always at hand to help and advise.
When I look back at that year I very much learnt about Dental Law as my trainer interpreted it. The following year I became an associate in a very busy NHS multisurgery practice. My colleagues here were very much of a different generation and I started to learn more about real Dental Law. Over the years and as my experience has grown I feel my understanding of Dental law has grown. Indeed the introduction of formal Continuing professional development and the inclusion of core subjects have expanded the professions knowledge. In the last ten years I have owned and developed my own multipractice group of dental practices which I have recently sold to a large corporate body. The last ten years saw a massive expansion in my business which led to more and more new dentist joining. I developed an induction programme and as a protection for my patients and my practice had a rigorous amount of dental law education included. This need for my business stimulated me more to learn and research dental law and ethics so I was in a position to impart some of this knowledge to our new dentists. I am now at a stage where I have more time for myself and hence why I have chosen to formalise my Dental law knowledge. I feel the
References: Chapman v Mid-Essex Hospital Services [2001] All ER (D) 239 Chappel v Hart (1999) Lloyds Law Reports 223