Developing policy in an administrative health region.
The paper presents recent English health and social care legislation as observed by a dentist, in a post which carries no dental remit, but involves responsibility in a Regional Health Authority for a variety of care groups, including mental health, learning disabilities and geriatrics, for interagency working and implementation of legislative changes. It poses a series of questions for dentistry which might arise from these changes, from the perspective of an informed 'outsider' of the dental world working at a strategic level.