Biting back with Arthur Dent
The price of self-regulation
A
s dentists we are told that we are accorded the privilege of ‘self-regulation’ by the General Dental
Council (GDC). This was perhaps true in the ‘good old days’ when there was a sizeable council of 50 members containing a majority of dentists, most of whom were elected by their peers. Unfortunately, the GDC today is effectively a government quango of 13 appointees: six registrants, six lay people and a lay chair, Mr William Moyes. In a recent speech to the FGDP,
Mr Moyes outlined his ‘credentials’ “
...as a relative newcomer to both the dental sector and to professional regulation”. Why was a relative newcomer put in charge of our supposedly self-regulatory body? In the same speech, Mr Moyes later
opined that “the exposure of failure and bad performance will increase”. This is hardly a vote of confidence in the abilities and standards of the
profession he is tasked with regu- lating and appears to demonstrate how little he knows about dentistry. Mr Moyes has a huge task ahead.
The GDC is struggling to meet its many responsibilities: registration, regulation, professional conduct, patients’ complaints etc. Yet recently, Mr Moyes spent thousands of the council’s precious funding on a full-page advert in the Daily Telegraph inviting more patients to complain about their dentists! The GDC is funded by one
source, the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) paid by all registrants. The ARF for dentists in 2014 was the highest of any healthcare profession at £576. The General Medical Council charges doctors only £390. Despite this huge discrepancy,
Mr Moyes now proposes to increase the ARF by a massive 64 per cent to £945. The GDC attempts to justify this huge increase by claiming that, since 2010, patient complaints have risen by 110 per cent; making it all the
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“Would it be better if dentists were regulated by the GMC?”
more puzzling why precious money was spent inviting more complaints. The Council has held a ‘consulta-
tion’ about the increase and no doubt has been flooded by protests from angry dentists and DCPs, the BDA and other bodies. However, there seems little doubt the increase will proceed. Dentists across the UK are asking
the more fundamental question: “Are we being well served by the GDC?” A recent BDA survey revealed 79 per cent of respondents don’t believe the GDC is an effective regulator. Dentists used to jealously defend the GDC and the right to self-regulation. Now they are demanding an alterna- tive is found. Even the unthinkable – would it be better if dentists were regulated by the GMC? We often discuss the possibility of
a Scottish regulator, and the outcome of the referendum might determine that decision. But one thing is certain: almost any alterna-
tive would be better than the General Dental Council.
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