Dentists referring other dentists to the GDC

dentists complaining about other dentists to GDCDentists should accept each other’s differences and not report registrants to the GDC for misunderstandings, Alun Rees argues.

I started 2020 hoping that this was the year the GDC would tone down its battle with the profession.

The year it accepted that confrontation helps nobody, least of all patients.

However in the pseudo-corporate world that the GDC inhabits, flexing of muscles and macho behaviour is still acceptable as the order of the day.

Confrontation followed by humiliation with common sense nowhere in sight.

But there is one element that the GDC cannot control.

Len D’Cruz’s paper in the current BDJ reveals that nearly one in 10 referrals to the GDC are from registrants about other registrants – shameful.

The ‘Eastenders‘ effect

The rise in conflict reflects what my late father referred to as the ‘Eastenders‘ effect; he believes that instead of art following life, the aggressive behaviour of the characters in the soap now reflects in real life behaviour.

A recent post on my blog talked about the need for greater civility in our lives.

This followed last year where one aggressive individual threatened to sue over an obituary of Chuck Berry I’d written.

I wonder how the individuals involved spend the rest of their lives.

Does everything need to be treated as a confrontation if things don’t go their way?

Are they scoring points over each other and gradually upping the ante?

Do they not have the personal tools, character and communication skills to deal with differences of opinion, interpretation and values?

Have they never heard of conciliation and arbitration?

Or do they therefore believe that insisting on airing their dirty laundry in a place not intended for such purpose with their fellow professionals forced to pick up the tab will provide an adequate solution?

Consequently, the more that this happens, the greater the harm to all of dentistry.

One result therefore might be for the GDC to justify more compliance and impose even greater controls.

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