Covid Dental UK CDO Sara Hurley Speaks

More than 10,000 dental professionals listened to ‘the webinar’ at the end of a week when ‘just one more webinar’ was all the enthusiasm that some dentists could surely have mustered after another week of being isolated from their dental businesses, their teams and patients.

The dental profession had waited with bated breath and yet was initially threatened like a naughty school child and told not to play silly tricks, even on April Fools Day.

What could have been a much required and desperately needed hint of leadership and direction from Sara Hurley The Chief Dental Officer, turned out to be anything but that. Even as a bystander, I could see a debacle being live streamed to the profession. I am not clinically qualified to comment on the inaccuracies of accrediting you all as  being head and neck ‘specialists’, but anybody could have observed the basics of giving no eye contact for pretty much the whole broadcast.

The bizarre defocusing of the background one minute and revealing some kind of white board dental battle plan the next, made me shudder. What was wrong with having a quick tidy up first and before possibly the biggest and most important live communication that she will ever have made?

Many will view the long awaited resurfacing of Sara Hurley as disaster for the dental profession. It was at times contradictory for some, patronising for others and at best it was a poorly pieced together list of statements, that did nothing to reassure a profession already on its knees.

The Social Media feeds, one of which got a direct special mention by The Chief Dental Officer, went red hot in the hours that followed and I expect will continue to so do for some time, despite  the heightened fear that matron is clearly watching, she told us so. The real narrative right now should be “Dentists are concerned right now, I know, I am listening to you” but in one inept hour of live broadcasting The Chief Dental Officer turned her back on those that she is meant to serve.

There is a book that every cadet who passes through Sandhurst will have read.

To quote The Lord Bishop of Durham in the book’s preface:

“…there are those who, with an assured and unquestioned title, take the leading place, and shape the general conduct.”

Sara, I have ordered you a copy…

Please read it before you have nothing left to lead.