Minister understands dentists’ complaints about GDC
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- Published: Tuesday, 09 December 2014 16:42
- Written by News Editor
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During a short debate in Westminster Hall Health Minister, Dr Daniel Poulter MP, said that the General Dental Council (GDC) will have to make substantial improvements in its ways of working. He also questioned the need for the ‘unprecedented’ rise in retention fee (ARF), but stressed that the Government recognised the independence of the health regulators.
The debate had been initiated by dentist MP Sir Paul Beresford, who outlined the ways in which the GDC had lost the trust of the dental profession. He told MPs that the Professional Standards Authority (PSA), which regulates at the health regulators, had found that the GDC had failed to meet its standards.
But it was on the proposed 64% rise in ARF that he expressed the anger from dentists. He had also been shocked at the GDC’s decision to run an advertisement calling on patients to complain. Complaints against dentists should where possible be resolved locally and the NHS should play a fuller part in such resolution, Sir Paul said. He drew on his experience in local government (before entering Parliament, he was chairman of Wandsworth Council) to say that public bodies should look to ways of making savings.
Minister, Dr Poulter who was a full time NHS hospital doctor before entering Parliament in 2010, repeated the Government’s guidance that any ARF increase should be ‘proportional’. He noted that the GDC had seen a large increase in complaints, but so had other regulators, including the General Medical Council (GMC) whose ARF was £390. Like the GMC, he believed that the GDC should look at a lower ARF for the newly qualified. The minister did believe that the secondary legislation (Section 60 order) that the Government was pushing through should help the GDC make savings.
He also noted that the PSA was investigating the GDC and had made known its concerns about the way in which the GDC handled its functions. Although the GDC had to put its house in order, the regulators were independent bodies under the supervision of the PSA.
The debate can been viewed on http://www.parliamentlive.tv/main/Player.aspx?meetingId=16685 around 11am.
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