The cause of death for dental professionals who have died while fitness to practise (FtP) concerns were investigated or remediated have been released by the General Dental Council.
Released today, the report covers the period 2019 to 2022. During this time, 20 dental professionals died while their cases were active, with causes of death categorised as natural, external, or unspecified, and one subcategory of suicide.
The GDC says it has replaced exact numbers within number ranges (ie 1-3, 4-6, 7-10), to minimise the risk of individuals being identified through calculations of the reported data.
The figures are:
- Natural – seven to 10
- Deaths from external causes – seven to 10, of which one to three were confirmed as suicide
- Other/unspecified – one to three.
The report has included deaths in the subcategory of suicide when ‘suicide’ was listed on the death certificate or notification. Death certificates in Scotland and Northern Ireland do not use the word ‘suicide’ or any synonym of it. All overseas deaths have been categorised as ‘other/unspecified’ due to difficulties relating to interpretation of the cause of death in all cases, which may also contribute to an underreporting of the number of deaths by suicide.
In the same period of 2019-22, there were 3,926 cases referred for assessment, with 751 referred to a practice committee for hearing.
The GDC notes that cases referred for assessment and to a practice committee for a hearing can be the same case. Cases can also span more than one year or be referred back, so figures are subject to double counting. Further, the regulator highlights that an individual dental professional may have more than one active case at the same time, so cases do not equate to the total number of dental professionals.
Complex issues
Lord Toby Harris, GDC chair, said: ‘The report serves as a call for everyone in the dental sector to reflect on the environment, systems and processes involved in being a dental professional.
‘It took longer than we expected to complete the work and some of the issues have been complex. But we have delivered process improvements in parallel and taken care to ensure we can be confident in the data reported.
‘Every death is a tragedy, and when the data and what we are doing to improve FtP are put aside, what is left is the death of people, some in tragic circumstances. We must consider the families, loved ones and colleagues for whom the pain and hurt are still very raw, and we offer them our condolences.’
According to the GDC, recent improvements have been made to the FtP processes. These include revised communications and staff training, as well as an ongoing pilot into the use of initial inquiries to enable the assessment of clinical practice concerns earlier in the process and improve timeliness.
The full report can be read here.
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