GDC extremely disappointed by Queens Speech omission
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- Published: Thursday, 12 June 2014 07:17
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The General Dental Council (GDC) says it is ‘extremely disappointed’ at lack of Bill on professional regulation in Queen's Speech. GDC Chief Executive and Registrar Evlynne Gilvarry has written to all registrants and said: “The absence of a Bill in today's Queen's Speech which would enable changes that are critical to patient protection is extremely disappointing.”
The GDC says that despite having pledged to legislate at the earliest opportunity, the Government has failed to deliver on its promise. “Whilst the GDC continues to strive to be an effective and efficient regulator our ability to protect patients and deal with complaints is currently hampered by antiquated legislation.
“At a time of sharply rising complaints, the GDC's ability to handle patient concerns effectively is limited by outdated, inefficient and expensive processes that we are unable to reform without the permission of Parliament. The Law Commission has drafted a Bill to reform the health regulation system in the UK but it is now expected that this Bill will not be introduced to Parliament until after the election and, even then, its fate is uncertain. This will significantly delay improvements necessary to ensure patient safety.
“We have been urging Government for the last three years to implement specific changes aimed at improving our ability to protect patients and reduce our costs. One significant change on its own would enable us to save up to £2 million a year - a cost that must be borne by the dental profession.
“At present our outdated processes mean that patients have to wait longer for their complaints to be heard, and dental professionals whose fitness to practise has been questioned will not be dealt with as expeditiously as possible. We are urging the Government to bring forward a Section 60 order to make some key changes to improve our ability to protect the public.”
I urged them then to work with the NHS and join a private patients' service on the back of what was then the NHS complaints service which at that time was based on local conciliation first and which at that time worked reasonably well with the community health committees that were foolishly (in my opinion) abandoned.
We probably now can't go back but in my view complaints should first of all be dealt with well in practice. If practices cannot or will not do this then patients should be able to go quickly to local conciliation sources before patients are allowed to go to the GDC. This was I think the case before the GDC was so foolish as to ignore my advice. :D :) :roll:
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