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Published: Monday, 29 October 2012 14:21

Written by Tony Jacobs

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Philip Chambers asked:

Why does the GDC need expensive London premises when they could just convene in local conference facilities?

The Wimpole Street offices are rented to us on a “peppercorn rent” of £5,000. We have investigated moving out of London but this is not financially viable. The GDC is more than the Council and the organisation employs over 200 staff so we cannot simply convene in local conference facilities.

Sunder Dharmar posed the question:

Does registering dental nurses really help to regulate dentistry?

Yes, it is clear that we need to regulate the whole dental team.
The presence and activites of the regulator give confidence to the public. Through this, the public knows all parts of the profession are properly trained, regulated, and continuously educated. This is the same for dental nurses, whose role these days is ever more complex.

Arthur McGroarty said:

Given that evidence exists that the current CPD system is not having the desired effect of raising clinical standards, what plans does the GDC have to rectify this before the introduction of revalidation?
I cannot be alone in believing any Revalidation scheme founded on an ineffective CPD system will never be a good thing. Improving standards is a worthy and necessary goal for any profession, but surely we all have the responsibility to ensure that any scheme actually works for the benefit of patients before embaking on "Improvements".

We are currently working very hard on revalidation and an integral part of this is the CPD scheme. Our first focus is to re-evaluate the role and nature of CPD and we have researched and consulted widely on this important issue. We are determined to develop and effective CPD system that measures the outcome of CPD activity and not simply the inputs. We also intend that the effectiveness of CPD is measured as part of a personal development plan for registrants. This is obviously a complex area and we are consulting on the way forward in the next few months.

Audoen Healy asked many questions:

• Given the nature of the current pilot schemes, as an indication of the likely structure of future NHS care delivery, it seems apparent that there will be a far greater emphasis on the use of DCPs in delivering dental care. This, coupled with the stated intention of the GDC to look positively at introducing direct access to these DCPs, raises the question of what precisely the role of the dental surgeon will be in the future. How do you envisage dentists being employed in the future, and how do you envisage dental practices being funded?
• Will there be a significant and adequately rewarded role for dentists at all, or are our young undergraduates wasting tens of thousands of pounds and five years of their lives working towards a professional qualification which will lead nowhere?
• With the changes which are in the pipeline, will there be any change in the career structure of the profession? •Will there be properly recognised and adequately rewarded training pathways that will be inclusive of the whole profession, allowing those who have to work for a living in practice to take part? Or will we carry on with the situation we have at present, where there are a tiny number of hospital trained specialists in narrow fields, and the rest of the profession are treated as second class professionals, to be used as cheap labour by the DoH, or simply discarded as excess to requirements?
• Put simply, the question is . . .

Squeezed between the "specialists" and the DCPs, what precisely will be the role of the GDP?

These questions are concerned with workforce planning and delivery of care. This is not the role of the GDC.

Several have asked:

Please analyse the fall in numbers of DCPs registered in the last two summers?

We always see a drop in numbers of DCPs around the ARF period as DCPs either choose not to renew their registration or simply forget to pay the fee and have to go through our restoration process
The figures below from our registers show that DCP numbers are continuing to rise steadily since mandatory registration
Year No of DCPs

• Current figures (Sept 2012) 59,039
• Dec 2011 58,883
• Dec 2010 57,204
• Dec 2009 55,543
• Dec 2008 55,926

Stephen Day said:

I have been concerned for sometime at the dental care I see coming from local corporate practices. I use the words dental care meaning the whole patient management as well as the practical work carried out. I feel that there should be more attention paid to incoming foreign dentists with regards to how they practice and how the corporates allow them to practice. Perhaps the corporates should fund a mentoring system for their dentists overseen by the GDC.
Will the GDC point out to the profession that ‘pills no drills’ approach to treating irreversible pulpitis is not acceptable or necessary? Patients are just handed out antibiotics when they attend with toothache and are given the expectation that this will suffice.

This question is concerned with working to standards. If you see patients who are not being treated to the standards, then you can and should make a referral of the registrants involved to the GDC.

Stephen Shimberg asked:

We all welcome the appointment of a dentist as head of the GDC, but coming from a wholly academic background do you Professor O'Brien really appreciate the stresses of working in an NHS dental practice?

This question is concerned with expertise and suitability for the role as Chair and I have answered a similar question earlier. While I spent four years in full-time general dental practice many years ago, I do not pretend that I have hands on experience of current general practice. However, this is not relevant to my current role of governance of the organisation. There are other council members who have that experience.

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