Dental profession has lost faith in the GDC, poll suggests

Dental profession has lost faith in the GDC, poll suggests

Following the GDC versus Williams case, a recent poll has found that 99.5% of dental professionals do not think the GDC is fit to regulate.

On the back of the General Dental Council (GDC) versus Williams case, a poll was undertaken to find out what the profession thinks about the GDC.

The results found that only 0.45% of those who took part still has faith in the GDC.

Matt Everatt, editor-in-chief of Laboratory, asked two Facebook groups: ‘Do you think the GDC is fit to regulate any more?’.

These are the findings:

Dental Technicians Great Britain Facebook group

• Yes – two votes
• No – 153 votes.

For Dentists, By Dentists Facebook group

• Yes – one vote
• No – 512 votes.

Matt Everatt, editor-in-chief of Laboratory and director of S4S Dental Laboratory

The results are alarming. Within just a few hours, 136 votes had been cast, with 135 saying they felt the GDC are not fit to regulate our profession any more.

The case of GDC versus Williams raises many concerns about our regulator and their draconian and aggressive approach to safeguarding patients. The worrying thing about this case is the use of NHS rules that neither the NHS, GDC nor the defendant properly understood. Yet the GDC used them to bring charges of dishonesty and fraud against the dentist.

Is this the wake up call that is needed for us as registrants, and for the regulator themselves, to call for an overhaul of the fitness to practise process? Should the GDC act more so as a ‘partner’ with its registrants? Going shoulder-to-shoulder in protecting patients rather than looking through a case with a fine-toothed comb like a crash investigator to see where they can find mistakes to enable a suspension or a removal from the GDC register?