When is the GDC not the GDC? When it calls itself the Dental Leadership Network
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- Published: Wednesday, 14 December 2022 07:53
- Written by Peter Ingle
- Hits: 1349
Weary registrants may not have had time to read all of the recent “Latest Updates from the GDC” email, that landed in their in-boxes recently. There is a lot of content, including a report on a meeting of “a new Dental Leadership Network.”
This is not a new organisation, but a meeting organised by the GDC where it discussed a variety of issues with guests that it had selected. It is a further example of the GDC trying to rebrand itself, as it has already attempted with the Dental Professional Hearings Service.
According to the GDC, at the meeting, “The main talking-points on the day included recruitment and retention of dental professionals, the importance of wellbeing and mental health, balancing the different needs of government, professionals and the public, and how the whole dental team needs to speak with one voice.” Were the GDC an organisation possessed of any insight, it would recognise that it is a major contributor to all of these challenges.
Later in the same email there is a section on the GDC’s proposed changes to its Interim Orders Committee (IOC) Guidance. As previously reported in GDPUK the GDC is holding a consultation on this. At the same time that the GDC sent out their update email, indemnifier Dental Protection, has raised concerns about the rapidly growing number of dental professionals being referred to the Interim Orders Committee (IOC), and the impact on wellbeing.
As Dental Protection explain, the committee can restrict a registrant’s registration, for example suspending them, so that they can no longer practice. This all happens before any Fitness to Practice hearing, indeed the IOC will not even investigate the allegations against the registrant. In 2019 the GDC referred 67 cases to the IOC. In 2021 this had more than doubled to 152 cases. In 2019, 25% were closed by the IOC with no interim sanction, the figure in 2021 being 39%
Deputy Dental Director at Dental Protection, George Wright said, “We see the impact the investigation process has on the dental professional’s career, reputation and wellbeing. Having to face an IOC hearing during this process adds to this stress and we were concerned to learn that the number of hearings has increased at such an alarming rate in just two years.”
“Even more worrying is that the growing proportion of these IOC hearings concluding with no interim sanction suggesting that the cases should not have been referred in the first place. It seems right to question whether the GDC’s processes for identifying suitable cases for referral to an IOC hearing is working as it should.
“Every effort should be made to minimise the impact the fitness to practise process has on the mental health and wellbeing of the professionals involved. This should include ensuring the system which determines the cases that need to be referred to the IOC is robust and is filtering out cases that should be concluded at an earlier stage.”
Meanwhile the GDC is seeking to change the guidance that the IOC use to make their decisions, with some of the changes appearing to make punitive measures even more likely. It takes a special type of insight to hold discussions about the well-being and mental health of registrants at the same time as trying to expand a process that is already responsible for untold damage. In this case, damage to registrants whose case had not been heard, and in many cases faced no further action. Meanwhile the GDC host discussions about recruitment and retention of dental professionals.
The GDC’s consultation about changing the IOC guidance is open to all registrants. The link to participate in the consultation can be found at: https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/consultations-and-responses#ioc
Busy dentists may begrudge the time it takes to fill in. They might first reflect that colleagues who have already been suspended by the IOC and as a result cannot work, would have ample time to complete the consultation.
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