Engagement with the North Wales Local Dental Committee - part 1: current participation and opinions of its communication methods

Aims To gather the views of North Wales dentists on the current communication methods of the North Wales Local Dental Committee (LDC) (NWLDC) and how this could be optimised to improve engagement from members. Design Descriptive cross-sectional survey. Setting Online electronic questionnaire. Materials and methods Survey circulated via the NWLDC's current communication channels, local professional groups, the local health board and Health Education and Improvement Wales' Maxcourse distribution list. Results A total of 167 unique responses were received from across North Wales. In total, 79.1% were from dentists, of which most were working in the general dental services (63.6%) on a mixed practice basis (61.9%). Furthermore, 69.5% of respondents felt they received too little information from the LDC, 71.3% never attended LDC meetings and only 15.6% attended more than one meeting a year. The pandemic has had no impact for 82.6% in increasing their engagement with the LDC. Conclusions Communication between the LDC and the dental community within an area is crucial. This survey has shown that, despite the best of intentions, the current communication methods utilised by the NWLDC are not effective at maximising the inclusiveness and participation with the LDC. The survey revealed that there is a lack of clarity over the LDC's role and who is 'allowed' to attend LDC meetings. It showed that although the dental practitioners practising within North Wales want to receive information and updates from the NWLDC, the communication methods which are currently being used are not reaching the majority of them.