Reduction in dental complaints

His comments come on the back of a 110 per cent increase in complaints received by the GDC in the last four years, and costs related to fitness to practice cases accounting for more than half of the regulator’s budget. Furthermore, in 2012-2013, NHS England, the Dental Complaints Service, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and the GDC collectively received in excess of 13,000 complaints, which Bill described as “staggeringly high”.

He said, “The GDC, the FGDP(UK) and other professional bodies need to understand better what is causing this apparently high and growing level of complaints, and what can be done about it”.

Bill went on to talk about an era of ‘conspicuous regulation’, which needs to function within a legislative framework that is “badly in need of a complete overhaul”. He called for stakeholders to continue the momentum towards regulatory reform in light of the Government’s decision not to progress the Law Commission’s draft Bill on a single legal framework for the regulation of health and social care professionals.