Gdc should speed up resolution of fitness to practise cases and make register more transparent, review urges

The GDC should resolve fitness to practise cases more quickly and provide more information on the public part of its register, according to a report from the Council for Healthcare

Regulatory Excellence (CHRE). The review of regulatory organisations was carried out between December 2007 and July 2008. In its report published last month, _Helping regulation to improve_,

the CHRE, which monitors nine bodies including the General Chiropractic Council, General Medical Council, General Optical Council, General Osteopathic Council and the Health Professions

Council, said the GDC was 'a highly effective and well-managed regulator' with a 'noteworthy commitment' to improvement across all areas. But it raised concerns over the

time-scale to resolve fitness to practise cases – currently an average of 20 months – and the fact that conditions of practice and admonishments did not appear on the public part of the

register. 'CHRE has concerns that conditions do not appear on the public part of the register and nor do admonishments, although the GDC does make clear its policy to disclose these to

members of the public should they wish to inquire,' the report notes. 'The GDC informs us that it is going to put admonishments on the register and is working towards adding

conditions. We feel this is important for public protection and should be a priority for the GDC,' the report urges. It notes that the GDC has set a target of settling fitness to

practise cases within 12 months and says this will be monitored in next year's CHRE review. The report cites the GDC's custom of reviewing all complaints within a day to see if

urgent action is needed, as good practice which should be followed by other regulatory bodies. Acknowledging that the introduction of statutory registration for dental nurses and dental

technicians from July 31 created special conditions, the report notes that the GDC 'has longer processing times for applicants than most other regulators, 15 to 20 working days for

dentists and six to eight weeks for the dental nurses and dental technicians.' 'Next year we expect to see the GDC has faster processing times for applications,' it adds. The

_GDC Gazette_, with its review of conduct cases, is cited as an effective way of communicating lessons of good and poor practice and promoting the GDC's standards. The introduction of

customer service training for the fitness to practise team is cited as another example of good practice. The report also considers decision making processes of the GDC are

'transparent', with council meetings, which are held in public, starting with a question and answer session for members of the public. Commenting on the report, GDC president Hew

Mathewson said: 'We welcome the scrutiny the review process provides and the opportunity to demonstrate accountability. I'm delighted the results show we are on the right

track.' The GDC had already started to work on the areas highlighted by the report, he added. 'We have an ambitious work plan which includes continuing to drive down the time we

take to deal with fitness to practise cases and streamlining our registration processes.' RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE GDC should

speed up resolution of fitness to practise cases and make register more transparent, review urges. _Br Dent J_ 205, 231 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2008.793 Download citation *

Published: 13 September 2008 * Issue Date: 13 September 2008 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2008.793 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read

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