Loophole found in Welsh regulations
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- Published: Tuesday, 26 November 2013 18:02
- Written by News Editor
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The Chief Dental Officer for Wales, David Thomas, has confirmed that the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW), equivalent of CQC in England, does not have a remit at present to register DCPs or prevent them from providing private dental services within their defined Scope of Practice. Hygienists can therefore set up in private independent practice in Wales without the need for a HIW inspection.
The Private Dentistry (Wales) Regulations stipulate that any dentist providing private work in Wales must be registered with Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW). However the regulations do not include or mention Dental Care Professionals (DCPs). HIW does not therefore have a remit at present to register DCPs or prevent them from providing private dental services within their defined Scope of Practice (agreed by GDC September 2013).
The Welsh Government will be consulting on amendments to the Private Dentistry Regulations during 2014. One of the amendments will be dealing with the need for DCPs to register with HIW. DCPs are reminded that a barrier to the delivery of dental services by Direct Access exist within the NHS in Wales via the Performers List Regulations.
Why do they not understand their own regulations
This was prompted because I had challenged HIW. It took over a month of badgering them and eventually reporting them for not responding. Eventually hey agreed with me that they could not stop Hygienists etc working under Direct Access because they had not accounted for it in the regulations and in fact had dismissed the need for CDTs to register. Until this point the CDO for Wales had been informing groups that Hygienists could not operate Direct Access in Wales.I have no legal training but even I could see that they had got it wrong on so many counts but they were propagating their own myth, sad when those at the top have no idea what is going on.
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