BDA: ‘new era’ at GDC comes with £½ million cleaning bill

The article, published in The Probe in March, contained numerous misrepresentations on the PSA’s whistleblowing inquiry and un-evidenced assertions about the rise of patient complaints.

The BDA has now published figures from a recent Freedom of Information request to the GDC indicating it spent over £¼ million on legal costs during the whistleblowing enquiry. Factoring in the added costs of staffing changes this amounted to a total outlay of over £½ million.

The FOI has also identified £250,000 bill to leading international PR firms, for a wide range of services beyond, including prepping the chair and former chief executive for their appearance in front of the Health Select Committee in March, 2015.

Mick Armstrong, chair of the BDA said:

“This profession wants nothing more than an effective and efficient regulator, but that journey will only begin when the GDC can show it is capable of confronting some hard truths. Sadly this recent article revealed its leadership is unwilling to even start down that road.