Minutes from January 2020

The fourth meeting of the 2019/ 2020 session was held in Lecture Theatre 2 of GDH on Tuesday 21 January 2020 commencing at 7pm.

The President, Dr William McLean, welcomed the members and guests to the meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting, published online were approved.

Under AOCB the President reminded members that to get CPD for the meetings they have to sign in giving their contact email address, without this CPD certificates cannot be sent out.

He informed the members that The Society now has a number of social media platforms and can be followed on: twitter, facebook, and instagram.

He publicised the Glasgow Orthopaedic Research Initiative (GLORI) 2020 meeting.  It combines expertise from orthopaedic surgeons, plastic surgeons, biologists, engineers and chemists from across the country. GLORI 2020 will take place at the University of Glasgow on Wednesday 19th February. It is free to attend. He then informed the audience that the Annual Dinner will be held on Saturday 22nd February 2020 in the RCPS Glasgow. Dress code: Black Tie.  There are restricted numbers. The proceedings of the raffle are going to the GOHISS – Glasgow Oral Health Improvement Student Society which is a group of 3rd to 5th Year Dental Students who give preventative advice and dental supplies to patients who may not always have had a positive experience with dentistry.

 

He then introduced the speaker, Dr Andrew Paterson and asked him to give his address to the society entitled ‘Trying to help: Benefits and risks of dental volunteering in the developing world’

Dr Paterson started his talk by thanking the President for his invitation. He then outlined his career pathway and his involvement with dental volunteering. He then outlined what he was going to discuss.

He discussed why health professionals volunteer and explained that although there were a number of theories, the reason for volunteering were poorly understood by the volunteering organisations.

He described the history of volunteering and where the developing world is now in terms of volunteer organisations. He felt that there has been a failure to understand and dovetail with health priorities of the country and that it was more about the volunteer than the developing world. He described the risks and pitfalls of treatment provided by volunteers. He then described the ideal volunteer programme and how the current examples of good practice could be measured against this. He finished by discussing what volunteers (clinical staff) should look in NGOs (Non Government Organisations) before volunteering. He encouraged people to get involved.

Ms Helen Patterson gave the vote of thanks. She thanked Dr Paterson for his comprehensive and realistic explanation of what can happen when you volunteer but also the benefits of volunteering. She then asked the audience to thank the speaker in the usual manner and the President later presented the speaker with an Odontological Society Paperweight.

The next meeting, the Presidential Address, is on Tuesday 18th February 2020 and will be held in Lecture Theatre 2 of GDH  It is entitled: ‘“Root Cause: Endodontics and Systemic Health” and will be given by the President, Dr William McLean.