New Chief Executive Says He Has Never Seen a Profession So Fearful of Its Regulator
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- Published: Monday, 06 October 2025 09:42
- Written by Peter Ingle
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A recent report on a roundtable meeting in Belfast with the GDC and other organisations will be of interest to dentists across the four nations. It took the form of a blog for the BDA, written by Paul Brennan, chair of the Northern Ireland Council.
Apart from some issues that might be local to Northern Ireland many will be familiar to teams all around the UK. The issues covered certainly demonstrate that the GDC has left behind any restriction of its activities to its public protection roles, and has sought to recast itself as a go-to organisation on matters of dental public health. Looking at the range of topics discussed, Paul Brennan’s group were keen to make use of this wider interest in dental matters that is now being shown by the GDC.
As Paul Brennan wrote: “Our aim was to outline these issues to the GDC in its capacity as our regulator. The GDC has a powerful voice and, much like the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration, should be encouraged to speak out on systemic issues.” The issues included workforce numbers, in particular in the salaried services, which the BDA group argued, affected not just the staff’s wellbeing but patient care.
This appears to have been an effective approach: “Encouragingly, the GDC appeared open to discussion. While they were keen to make the point that they are not part of our trade union, they looked at it in terms of practitioner wellbeing affecting patient outcomes. If the system is collapsing around clinicians, then the quality of care will inevitably suffer.”
More familiar territory was covered when the group discussed their relationship with the regulator. The first line in this part of the report is perhaps the most telling line in the entire blog: “The new Chief Executive remarked that, in his experience, he had never encountered a profession so fearful of its regulator.”
Dr Brennan described the changes in dentist’s perceptions of the GDC during his career. In the beginning, the perception had been that a dentist would only come before the GDC if they had done something seriously wrong. Now, surviving a career in dentistry without a brush with the GDC depended upon having a good deal of luck, as much as providing diligent patient care.
While the GDC made a good deal of its low-level concerns FtP process, no dentist in Northern Ireland had gone through it. There was a sense that the regulator has been erring on the side of caution and referring cases that do not warrant escalation. The group did welcome the stated ambitions of the new GDC corporate strategy, and if actually followed through believe it would make a real difference.
There was a return to systemic issues with the group telling the GDC of the pressures on health service dentists and how these then impact on secondary care. A failed contract and reduced funding means that the GDC are regulating dentists who work within a system that is unviable and unfit for purpose. They needed to recognise this, as well as lend their support to the reform agenda.
The group came back to the GDC’s original, if now sometimes neglected, core role. There were dental consultations being carried out in the UK, especially in Northern Ireland by individuals who are not GDC-registered, and in premises not registered for the practice of dentistry, such as hotels. The GDC needed to act against those individuals and the businesses facilitating this illegal activity.
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