After being unable to reveal data on the number of people who have died by suicide while under fitness to practise investigations, the GDC has spoken out about the reasons for this.
Earlier this year, the GDC received a freedom of information (FOI) request for the number of dentists who have taken their own life while under investigation.
This came after Dr Farooq Ahmed, a consultant and specialist orthodontist, read a report by the General Medical Council on the number of doctors who have died by suicide.
The GDC declined his request to provide the information. ‘There is no requirement for the GDC to be notified if a dental professional takes their own life and, because of this, we are unable to routinely capture when this has been the cause of a registrant’s death’, the GDC said.
But when Farooq questioned this, the GDC told him that a search of the word ‘suicide’ on its database produced 6,753 results.
This week, the GDC published a blogpost detailing the reasons behind being unable to disclose the number of dentists who have taken their own life while under a fitness to practise investigation.
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‘We do not record causes of death’
The blogpost, written by GDC executive director Stefan Czerniawski, said: ‘We do not hold this information, because our primary concern is knowing if a registrant has died, so that we can take necessary practical actions, such as closing their entry in the register.
‘If a fitness to practise case is open, it also enables us to close the case and record that we have done so. At that point, the cause of death has not always been established. Where the person has died unexpectedly or other than as a result of natural causes, the coroner (or in Scotland, the procurator fiscal) must be notified and an inquest may be held.
‘That is always the case for a suspected suicide and only after the completion of the inquest can a final death certificate be issued which records the cause of death. That is likely to come some considerable time after the death has occurred and, crucially for our regulatory purposes, after we have removed the person from the register and closed any open fitness to practise cases.
‘As a result, we do not collect and record causes of death where an inquest has been required.
Report to follow
In response to the concern about the lack of information on deaths by suicide during fitness to practise investigations, the GDC has decided to research into the matter to ‘develop an accurate picture’.
As such, the GDC will collect all of the information for the period of 2019-2021. The results of this research will be published in a report in the first half of 2023.
Stefan said: ‘We will aggregate data over three years to minimise the risk of identifying individuals, and we will allow a 12-month period for inquests to be completed and final death certificates to become available.
‘We will not provide any commentary on the results, as the fact that someone has taken their own life does not provide an explanation of why they did so.’
You can read the GDC’s blogpost here.
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