GDC under fire as ARF remains unchanged during COVID-19 crisis

The GDC made the announcement yesterday in an update sent out to all dental professionals.

It said that it will not make changes to the Annual Retention Fee (ARF) levels or introduce an emergency payment scheme to allow registrants to pay by instalments.

The British Dental Association (BDA) published an open letter to the Chair of the Council, Bill Moyes in an angry response.

It says that, with the profession now facing grave financial uncertainty, it laments 'failure by the regulator to show flexibility to colleagues, some of whom have seen their incomes fall to zero'

The BDA has also called for much-needed transparency in the process for setting the ARF.

BDA Chair Mick Armstrong said: 'Despite recognising the dire financial circumstances in which many practices and individual registrants find themselves, the GDC has not seen fit to provide even token support, citing no fundamental change to the work it does and the little financial impact the move would have on registrants.

'Greater transparency into the reasoning behind this decision would have been the very least response registrants should have received.

'But the message we are left with is "‘we need all the money and whatever we could do won’t really help you much".'