Revalidation Drive Started by General Dental Council

 General Dental Council (GDC) has opened its 12 week consultation into revalidation.

The Revalidation drive is on the lines of the GMC drive for doctors, will provide, for the very first time, a way of checking that dentists carry on meeting the GDC's standards after they have joined its registers.

The GDC's Fitness to Practise proceedings are reactive rather than proactive; they assume that dental professionals meet its standards unless the regulator receives information which suggests otherwise. The current trend among governing councils is to  be proactive.

The GDC plans to introduce revalidation for dentists in UK by  2014. Revalidation will make clear the minimum standards that all dentists must meet. It is expected that the majority of dentists will already be meeting these standards and should have no difficulty in revalidating - it will build on the current requirements for continuing professional development.

However, the system will provide an opportunity for those in difficulty to identify and tackle any problems before they become serious.

The structure

A standards and evidence framework will set out the standards dentists must meet under the four domains of clinical, management and leadership, communication and professionalism. The framework will also set out the evidence which will be acceptable to demonstrate compliance with each standard.

Dentists will gather this evidence over five-years, and revalidate at the end of each cycle;

GDC are proposing a three-stage process at the end of each cycle:

- Stage 1 - compliance check, which will apply to all dentists;

- Stage 2 - remediation phase, which will provide an opportunity to dentists who do not pass Stage 1 to remedy deficiencies;

- Stage 3 - in-depth assessment, which will apply to dentists who fail to demonstrate their compliance at the end of the remediation phase.

- Dentists who refuse to engage with the process, or who do but who fail to revalidate, will ultimately be removed from the register, with additional requirements for restoration to the register;

- There will be an appeals process.

The consultation

This consultation, which can be found on the GDC's website, sets out proposals for revalidating dentists. The proposals aim to avoid over-regulation by making as much use of existing and developing quality systems within dentistry as possible. Dentists will, in many cases, already be required to show that they are meeting quality standards. For example through NHS practice inspections or performance appraisals. Our approach is designed so that dentists can meet all our requirements and those of other dental service regulators under one umbrella.

The consultation takes into account the findings of an earlier consultation, research and pilots carried out in 2009. These pilots focussed on the experiences of general dental practitioners (GDPs). However, the GDC anticipates doing further piloting and consultation with other dentist groups in 2011 and 2012.

Chair of the GDC's Revalidation Working Group and Council Member, Denis Toppin said:

"We are keen to get feedback from a full range of stakeholders including registrants, patients, organisations representing the interests of patients and providers of quality initiatives. We want to make sure we get it right for the dentists we regulate. As a practising General Dental Practitioner I want the GDC to keep the extra regulatory burden to a minimum whilst maximising patient protection. We need you to get involved and have your say on our proposals so that you can help us to get them right and have the confidence of the public and professionals alike."

Notes

- The GDC welcomes Dental Care Professional (DCP) input into this consultation.

- The GDC does not plan to consider in-depth whether revalidation is necessary for all DCP groups until the random audit of the first cycle of CPD for DCPs is complete, in late 2013.

- Dentists all went through at least one complete cycle of CPD without any further requirements being put on them, and it would be unfair to DCPs to expect them to begin discussing whether revalidation is necessary until they have had the same opportunity to complete and review one cycle of CPD.

- However if DCPs would like to comment on the proposals for dentists in their capacity as a professional colleague, teacher or trainer, they are welcome to do so.