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General Dental Council to get more teeth

  • Published date:
    20 August 2004

Tighter regulation of dentistry for better patient protection

Improving protection for dental patients is at the heart of Government proposals announced by Health Minister Rosie Winterton today. Setting out the Government's next steps in its programme to modernise the regulation of dentistry, the Minister outlined proposed new powers for the profession's regulatory body, the General Dental Council (GDC).

Key changes are in response to a report on private dentistry by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) which found that patients lack the information needed to make informed choices about their treatment, that patients can be confused about the cost of treatment and, should things go wrong, procedures for dealing with complaints are inadequate.

Examples of common complaints made by patients about private dentistry are:

  • a lack of clarity about what kind of treatments are available on the NHS. In fact, any treatment that is clinically necessary to improve oral health is available on the NHS. On the other hand, cosmetic procedures, such as tooth whitening, are not;
  • that patients are not offered NHS treatment when it is available or that they are unaware they are being treated privately until presented with a bill for treatment;
  • that patients are not given an estimated cost of their treatment beforehand; and
  • that no compensation payment arrangements exist for patients who have received poor treatment because the dentist is not adequately insured. Under the new proposals, dentists will be breaking the law if they fail to insure themselves.

The Government's reforms will help address problems like these.  They include:

  • a more robust 'fitness to practice regime' for dealing with misconduct by dental professionals  and new procedures to tackle poor performance.  This will enable the GDC to investigate and  take necessary steps to deal with problems.  Dentists found guilty of serious professional   misconduct will face suspension or be banned from practice;
  • the establishment of a new complaints system;
  • introducing compulsory indemnity insurance for dentists before registration, so that dentists who  are found to have harmed patients are insured and able to pay compensation;
  • early intervention in cases triggered by a pattern of minor incidents that individually would not  amount to serious professional misconduct, but are of concern if considered as a whole;
  • extending regulation to other professionals working within dentistry, including dental    technicians and dental nurses.

Rosie Winterton said:

'We are determined to make sure that patients get a fair deal and clear information when they receive dental treatment, whether in the NHS or in the private sector. Our proposals are about assuring the quality of care that patients receive and will provide a more robust and effective complaints system to take early action when things go wrong. I am grateful to the General Dental Council for their co-operation in drawing up these proposals.

"I also welcome the action being taken by the GDC to make it clear that professional standards require private as well as NHS patients to be given full information about treatment and costs before treatment begins and that failure to do this may put a dentist's registration at risk."

Hew Mathewson, President of the General Dental Council said:
"I welcome this evidence of the Government's commitment to delivering our programme of reforms in order to strengthen the Council. It is excellent news for patients and dental professionals.

"We are committed to introducing a fair and effective complaints system to deal with private patient complaints that do not call into question the dentist's fitness for registration and which, therefore, cannot be dealt with effectively under the GDC's existing procedures. This new scheme should fill that gap, by enabling patients and dental professionals to resolve complaints fairly, efficiently, transparently and quickly.

"New powers will help us to continue to contribute towards consistent high quality dental care both within and outside the NHS".

Notes to editor

2. While the structures for delivering the GDC's functions need to change, its role will remain the  same - to protect the public by maintaining a register of dental professionals who are   competent and fit to practice.

3. The Government's programme for reforming the regulation of all healthcare professionals was  set out in The NHS Plan - a plan for investment, a plan for reform, which states that regulation  must be strengthened.

4. The GDC's Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) currently has five ways of protecting the  public when a dentist has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct:

  • public admonition - an appearance in public is in itself an uncomfortable experience and the  PCC Chairman may tell the registrant that their behaviour is regarded as reprehensible;
  • postponed judgement - the PCC finds that the dentist's behaviour is sufficiently serious to  warrant erasure or suspension, but the Committee is prepared to give the dentist a second  chance to reform, and will postpone its decision for up to 12 months to see whether reform has  even demonstrated;
  • suspension - for any period up to 12 months;
  • erasure - when the PCC is convinced it is in the public interest to stop the dentist from   practising; and
  • immediate suspension - for public protection.

5. Currently there is no equivalent to the NHS complaints system for patients receiving non-NHS  dental treatment. The GDC does not have the power to deal effectively with complaints about private dental treatment which fall short of the seriousness required for its current conduct procedures, ie.complaints that do not raise a question about the dentist's continuing registration. The draft legislation proposes the Council can introduce a scheme to deal with such complaints, and the Council is committed to doing so.

6. In June 2003 the Government published its response to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report  on the private dentistry market in the UK. It accepted the report's recommendations in full and  announced a Government Action Plan to implement them. More details are available at:   http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics2/pdf2/dentistgov.pdf

7. For media enquiries only, please contact Katie Robinson at the Department of Health Media  Centre on 020 7210 5329.

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