BDA welcomes news GDC is to be scrutinised

The British Dental Association (BDA) has voiced its approval that the General Dental Council (GDC) will have to undergo a Health Select Committee accountability hearing.

Since 2010, professional regulators – including the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council – have been subject to regular accountability hearings, but the GDC had avoided this despite repeatedly being taken to task by the Professional Standards Authority.

On December 9th, the GDC was discussed in an adjournment debate in parliament, as the BDA wrote to health ministers after the regulator was found to have acted unlawfully in the High Court in its consultation on the setting of professional fees.  

Mick Armstrong, chairman of the BDA's Principal Executive Committee, said that his organisation has told the government that patients and practitioners alike are best served by a regulator that comes under scrutiny.

"So we are delighted that the Health Select Committee has decided to call its first accountability hearing on the GDC", he remarked.

Mr Armstrong feels that the regulator has been operating in a "consequence-free" environment and as a result, the industry has not seen the efficient and effective regulation the profession deserves.

According to the chairman, MPs are "waking up to the fact that Britain’s most expensive healthcare regulator is also the least efficient, most troubled and enjoys little confidence among the profession".

He added that politicians need to take action and holding the GDC to account is the first step.