Health Committee holds GDC to account
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- Published: Wednesday, 11 March 2015 13:51
- Written by News Editor
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The Commons Health Committee grilled the GDC Chair and the chief executive for two hours on their performance over recent years. Although the questions were searching, the GDC team appeared to be in total denial that they were in the wrong. The Committee, however, did not seem impressed.
The Health Committee, chaired by Dr Sarah Woolaston MP, held an accountability hearing with the General Dental Council (GDC) on Wednesday March 11, 2015. Witness for the GDC were William Moyes, GDC Chair and Evlynne Gilvarry, Chief Executive and Registrar.
The Committee were concerned that the GDC manifestly did not have the confidence of the profession. This was met with the denial that all dentists had lost confidence. It was only the BDA that was in dispute not most dentists. It was pointed out that dentists were only a minority of the profession, compared with DCPs.
Some Committee members raised the matter of the now infamous advertisement in the Daily Telegraph, to which the response was that it was aimed at private, not NHS patients.
The GDC were unable to supply up to date figures on the number of cases from the backlog that had been cleared, nor how they came by their estimates for their estimates of future cases. However Gilvarry said she accepts full responsibility for the work of the GDC. They gave a target of 6 months to the Investigation Committee and a further 9 months to Fitness to Practise, targets they hope to achieve by the end of 2015.
The GDC team were also quizzed on poor communication by dentists over their treatment plans, the lack of dental professionals’ input to them, and the size of senior staff bonuses.
Overall the answers failed to convince those dentists present; this probably goes for the MPs as well.
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