Not so long ago there was a time that we could proudly call ourselves a self-regulated profession. In those days the General Dental Council had a majority of dentists, 10 lay members and four Dental Care Professionals (DCPs). This has since evolved, so up to this year the structure had become a smaller council with a chair (no longer a president), 12 lay members, four DCPs and eight dentists. The GDC was also our sole regulatory body – responsible for the registers, maintaining standards, inspecting our centres of learning and carrying out discipline through fitness to practise. We still have some, albeit reduced voice in our own regulation.
To enhance our professional presence, we also have a chief dental officer for England, whose role carries considerable gravitas and is seen by politicians, the press and the public as the official voice of the dental profession. In fact the health department website states, 'The chief dental officer helps ensure that ministers, the department of health and wider government receives appropriate, timely, high quality and professional advice in respect of the practice of dentistry and the promotion of good oral health. In his role he provides advice and professional leadership to the dental profession.'
But what is happening now? The structure of the present GDC is further under threat as the recent advert for the replacement of resigned GDP Alison Lockyer is open to all registrants in response to the Section 60 order which says that all regulatory bodies should be appointed proportionately. With a greater population of DCPs than dentists we could possibly end up with 12 lay, five dentists and seven DCPs if proportionality is to be taken literally.
The Care Quality Commission has also entered the equation as our next layer of regulation, supervising how we provide, inform and protect our patients while delivering dental care. Their inspectors are not dental professionals but people chosen for the ability to spot the non-compliant through the process of box ticking.
Then we read in a paper from the health department that the post of chief dental officer is about to be abolished. The chief medical and nursing officer posts will remain under new titles but all the other chief officers are going thanks to restructuring and economy measures at the health department. The present chief dental officer Barry Cockcroft's possible replacements could come from several backgrounds; dental, financial or administration. It would appear that the new format may have representation from Public Health England, Health Education England, the NHS commissioning board and the health department itself – certainly not a GDP in sight – and in some cases not a dentist in sight.
In England we are now allowing ourselves to be regulated by non-dentists on all fronts and it looks like we will soon lose our titular head. How can we be sure of being heard or represented fairly? What a turnaround in only five years. An outside observer could be forgiven for thinking we are entirely happy to surrender our hard-won privilege of being recognised as a profession in the true sense of the word. Sadly, we may have left it too late to do anything about it.
Meredyth BellGDP and former GDC member