Trevor Payne

On 13 January 2010 it was with unprecedented shock that both family and colleagues heard of Trevor Payne's sudden heart attack a few days short of his 62nd birthday. It occurred whilst sitting at home watching his beloved Tottenham Hotspur.

A product of the grammar school high noon, in his case Davenant Foundation, Trevor qualified from the Royal Dental in 1972. The manner in which dental services were delivered had not changed for 25 years and practitioners still worked in little cottage industries doing their own entrepreneurial thing. Trevor, from the day he qualified, decided not only to join a relatively contented profession but also devote his life in trying to balance the eternal triangle. Trevor saw this as patients, high street practitioners and Whitehall.

Trevor immediately plunged into the deep end as an associate in Golders Green. Within a year he bought out his principal. Six months later, still only 26, Trevor had the gall to canvas for election to the Barnet Local Dental Committee of the old Middlesex Executive Council, the second biggest LDC in England and Wales and still an exclusive oligarchy of patronage where good chaps did not stand for election but emerged.

Trevor never looked back in his career of representing fellow GDPs. After the 1974 re-organisation he became a member of the Management Committee of the Society of Family Practitioner Committees. He was still only 29. By 1984 he was elected Chairman of the Barnet FPC, the early forerunner of the present day PCT. When FPCs became FHSAs Trevor served both in Barnet and Enfield & Haringey. At the same time he served as secretary to both Local Dental Committees.

In 1978 Trevor was elected to the General Dental Practice Committee and became its longest serving member. He served as Vice-Chairman from 1994-97, served on innumerable sub-committees - the most important being the Dental Rates Study Group - and in 1993 was Chairman of the Annual Conference of Local Dental Committees.

In the British Dental Association he was Chairman of the Hendon Section, Chairman of M & H Branch Council and President in 2000. Trevor served on the Representative Board 1994-2002. For the Association he regularly handled both politicians and the press on radio and television. Trevor was Chairman of the 'London Dental Forum'.

In the continuing education field Trevor was dental tutor at Chase Farm Hospital and managed a budget of quarter of a million for hands-on courses and IT training.

Trevor was at his very best representing colleagues with very different attitudes and values in the now defunct dental service committee. He liked to be on the winning side. Trevor loved dissecting SDR words such as 'normally', 'usually' and his favourite word 'reasonable'. Very often the chair would have to adjourn because Trevor had cited some obscure paragraph in the regulations that no one had ever heard of. Trevor and the respondent dentist would have to leave the room so that either the chair or secretariat could find the relevant paragraph without feeling humiliated. Invariably Trevor was right. His motto always had been 'preparation, preparation, preparation'.

To understand BDA members like Trevor readers have to ask themselves both how and why? How is easy. Quite simply Trevor did his homework. He simply knew his stuff better than either his committee colleagues or the new breed of managers. Trevor was never a spontaneous debater. He quite deliberately refrained from making the first contribution in any group discussion. Trevor was not one who thought on his feet. He thought before. The trouble was that after he had made his contribution there was not much that could be usefully added. Timing was very important to him.

The why is more difficult. Why do members with both happy families and busy practices spend countless hours in the evenings and weekends preparing agendas, writing minutes, drafting reports and reading policy papers? There is certainly no pecuniary interest. The reason for Trevor was that dentistry was more than just filling teeth. He liked the big picture, the dynamics and buzz of helping and representing his fellow practitioners. For Trevor it was also so much fun.

The M & H Branch's most sincere condolences are extended to Judith Payne, the three children and their families.