Dental Protection has urged the General Dental Council (GDC) to review the assessment and triaging of cases in its fitness to practise processes.
This follows the publication of the GDC’s Fitness to Practise report earlier this week, which revealed that 33% of cases in 2024 were closed by the case examiners with no action.
Dr George Wright, Deputy Dental Director at Dental Protection said: “The relatively high number of cases that are dispensed with at the case examiner stage with no action suggests that the triaging is still not right, and too many cases are going forward. A more thorough assessment by the Assessment Team could reduce the number of cases referred and reduce the number of dental professionals needlessly dragged through the fitness to practise process.
“The data does not tell the whole story as to the frustrations and delays faced by dental professionals. It is disappointing that the case examiners did not meet the target of a decision within 13 working weeks in over 96% of cases in 2024.
“There is a clear need for improvement with our recent research involving members who have been investigated by the GDC finding that 82% of dentists reporting that it was the length of the investigation itself that impacted on their mental wellbeing the most.
“While we continue to campaign for the government to publish a timescale for reforming the out-of-date legislation that would give the GDC more discretion to close cases sooner, we believe the GDC needs to be more agile in getting resource in place given that this figure has not improved since 2022. We will continue to work with them to share ideas of where improvements could be made.”
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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.