Plugging leaks

I think it’s fair to say 2011 was a bad year for the General Dental Council. Not only did it lose its chair, Alison Lockyer, in May 2011, but it then faced an investigation into its fitness to practise function; a serious allegation for a body whose statutory duty is “to promote high standards of professional conduct, performance and practice.”

In June 2011 the Department of Health asked the regulators’ regulator – the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (now the Professional Standards Authority) - to investigate. By that time CHRE had, of course, already raised concerns regarding the GDC’s handling of fitness to practise cases and in particular the delay in bringing cases to a conclusion.

Ironically given that one of the concerns that had been expressed in relation to the GDC was the delay in the exercise of its fitness to practise function, it took the PSA almost 20 months to report back to the Department of Health, with the final report being published in February 2013. In the end the PSA concluded that “notwithstanding…the fact that improvements can still be made…we do not consider based on the evidence that the GDC has failed or is failing to carry out its statutory functions.”