Dental Protection has welcomed the Government’s commitment to professional regulatory reform, but says it is disappointed that reform of the GDC continues to be at the back of the queue.
This follows a ministerial statement this week confirming the Government’s plans to modernise the legislative frameworks for only the General Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Health and Care Professional Council during this Parliament.
Raj Rattan, Dental Protection’s Dental Director, said: “While we welcome the new Government’s commitment to reforming healthcare professional regulation, we cannot help but note that successive governments have not prioritised substantive reform to dentistry legislation. This week’s announcement confirms that GDC reform is at the back of the queue and presumably will not progress during this parliamentary term.
“We have been calling for GDC reform for some time, as the current framework continues to limit the regulator’s ability to efficiently carry out its functions.
“In our 2023 survey of 125 dental professionals who have been investigated by the dental regulator, 82% said the process had a detrimental impact on their mental health. While the GDC still has scope to make significant improvements, reform to their outdated legislation could play a key role in further reducing delays to fitness to practise processes, as it could give the regulator greater discretion to not take forward investigations where allegations clearly do not require action.
“GDC reform should not be an afterthought. We urge the Government to find time to deliver this alongside planned reforms to other regulators.”
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Notes to editors
For further information contact: [email protected].
View Dental Protection’s Priorities for the New Government paper: Outlining our priorities for the UK Government (dentalprotection.org)
About Dental Protection
Dental Protection is a registered trademark and a trading name of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”). MPS is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 300,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.
Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.
Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our workshops, E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.
MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.