Healthcare regulators must remove groundless complaints to restore faith in regulation and safeguard mental health, the Dental Defence Union (DDU) has said.
This comes after the head of the DDU, John Makin, spoke at the Westminster Health Forum Event on priorities for dentistry in England. He told attendees that the regulators ‘must do more’ to root out and close down complaints without merit.
He also said that dental professionals experience unnecessary stress due to drawn out investigations intro groundless complaints ‘too often’.
As a result, healthcare regulators must root out unfounded complaints in order to protect the wellbeing of dental professionals and boost the morale of the profession.
‘Extremely stressful’
John Makin, head of the DDU, said: ‘When concerns are raised about a dental professional that might impact patient safety or confidence in the profession, it’s right they are investigated.
‘However, we see a number of cases in which the concerns being raised have no foundation. We highlighted such a case involving a member in a recent journal. The whole process can be extremely stressful and protracted, especially in cases where there are several investigations into the same incident. We have reached a situation where the process in and of itself is a sanction regardless of the eventual outcome.
‘It is incumbent on those bodies investigating dental professionals, such as the General Dental Council (GDC), NHS England, CQC, and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, to have the courage to firmly and robustly close down cases quickly where concerns have no foundation. This will not only safeguard the mental health of the individual practitioners involved but also give a morale boost to the profession as a whole.
‘For its part, the GDC has introduced a pilot scheme aimed at speeding up the resolution of certain cases. However, without reform of the outdated Dentists Act, the GDC only has the power to make limited improvements to fitness to practise procedures. We need the government to fix a timetable for that reform without further delay and before the next election.’
Saving Grace
This comes after the launch of Dentistry’s Saving Grace campaign, which calls for fairer GDC regulation.
Dentistry believes the current system lacks the necessary flexibility and understanding, and does not account for human error or unforeseen circumstances that may cause a dental professional to miss registration or CPD deadlines.
Click here to sign the petition for fairer GDC regulation.
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