Dental Protection has welcomed recommendations by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for regulators, including the GDC, to help tackle inequalities in professional regulation.
The PSA oversees the GDC and other professional regulators and produces reports to recommend improvements. In its latest report, Safer Care for All, the PSA states that tackling discrimination and inequality requires a collaborative, coordinated effort from all bodies involved in the provision and regulation of healthcare, including regulators.
The report calls on the GDC and other regulators to review and address “more directly and urgently” processes which may have a disproportionate impact on certain groups of registrants, and ensure investigators have the right tools to interrogate information included within a referral, to help avoid progressing complaints against certain groups of registrants that are not well-founded.
The PSA in its September 2022 response to the GDC’s consultation on its strategic plan for the next three years, also asks the GDC to consider how it is embedding equality, diversity and inclusion across all workstreams, and in relation to all strategic priorities.
Dr Raj Rattan, Dental Director at Dental Protection, said: “All dental professionals have the right to an inclusive environment, and regulatory processes that are fair and just.
“The GDC’s 2021-2023 vision is to be a champion of diversity, equality and inclusion and one objective is to ensure that regulatory activity is fair and transparent. This includes analysing over-representation in fitness to practise cases and what this means.
“We are pleased to see this focus and recognise there are multiple and complex factors behind this issue. However, the PSA is right to call on the GDC, alongside other regulators, to address the issue more directly and with more urgency. We stand ready to work with and assist the GDC in this area wherever possible.”
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About Dental Protection
Dental Protection is a registered trademark and a trading name of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”). MPS is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 300,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.
Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.
Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our workshops, E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.
MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.