Sir, I cannot let Peter Ward's recent guest editorial pass, without adding my voice to what I am sure will be a chorus of admiration and approval.1 His excellent article ‘Dr Bates and the NHS/GDC' has elegantly provided a masterclass of analysis of the striking parallels between the truly shameful events at the Post Office, and the hauntingly similar culture of denial and lack of accountability at the GDC, and in the upper corridors of the NHS and DHSC.

Patient access to NHS dentistry, the regulation of UK dentistry, and the emotional (and financial) wellbeing of UK dentists have all descended the slippery slope towards the current crisis on all fronts and in plain sight. And just as has become so clear as regards the Post Office, it is a matter of record that people who were in a position to influence events for the better over many years, saw fit instead to maintain the status quo, deny that anything was wrong, close their eyes and say nothing.

At a previous moment of crisis, the 1983 Griffiths Report on the NHS contained the legendary and somewhat prophetic line: ‘In short, if Florence Nightingale were carrying her lamp through the corridors of the NHS today she would almost certainly be searching for the people in charge'. Unfortunately, it is in the nature of politics, of healthcare regulation and of the NHS and its management, that the people in charge move on - often to bigger and better things while still clutching their ill-gotten gains - while the poor bloody infantry are left on the battlefield to dress their own wounds (with or without Florence Nightingale's assistance). So it was in the Post Office scandal, but times change and public sympathy for the Sub-Postmasters is sky high. The dental profession should heed Peter Ward's timely warning and be alert to any attempt by the NHS or the GDC to conceal their own failings by blaming dentists for the current situation.