On 25 November the South West London LDC held its Annual General Meeting.
The AGM covered the election of the Board:
- Croydon – Ritesh Gajree
- Kingston-upon-Thames – Kunal Patel
- Merton – Tariq Ashraf
- Richmond-upon-Thames – Harmit Kalsi
- Sutton – Dharmen Patel
- Wandsworth – Babar Wahid
The main business of the AGM was the plan for engagement for 2026 and beyond. In light of the expected changes to the dental contract coming in for April 2026 fostering strong local relationships with commissioners in the SLW Integrated Care Board would continue to be a priority. The LDC has regular meetings with the dental team at the ICB, though due to the ongoing restructure of the ICBs there is personnel change so keeping this engagement up is vital to seeing us through the changes. There has also been a pilot to improve children’s oral health and encourage more holistic models of care in the area. While this met with limited success the LDC is committed to ongoing engagement to ensure that future models are much more effective.
The LDC will build on its meetings with the pilot sites and IMOS providers, continuing to meet with local providers to gather feedback and develop strategies to improve local working. This will be done in conjunction with continued local engagement such as working with the Kingston children’s oral health programme and the formation of the primary care collaborative in Sutton. The LDC will continue its close working arrangement with the Local Pharmacy Committee and Local Optical Committee to help ensure that primary care is well represented.
To help keep members up to date the LDC will continue to publish articles in the newsletter on meetings and engagement. The LDC also plans more members’ meetings, with the first tentatively arranged for March 2026, ahead of the implementation of contract changes.
The LDC’s report and plan for 2026 is available here:
