Draft General Dental Council (Fitness to Practise etc.) Order 2015

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Tuesday 19th January 2016 General Committees

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

I do not intend to detain the Committee long. It is a personal pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Gillan, as you and I share common views on certain matters, but perhaps not on the General Dental Council.

This morning, maybe rather foolishly, I emailed my dentist, whom I am seeing for a check-up on Friday in Bore Street in Lichfield, as I wanted to ask him for his impressions of the order. He has come back to me with a very brief number of points. If it is good enough for the Leader of the Opposition to mention Mary of Marylebone, it is good enough for me to mention my dentist—I will not mention his name—of Lichfield. He makes the point that there has been a massive increase in the number of complaints being made against dentists to the General Dental Council. He says it is up 110% in the past three years, partly because the GDC has been inviting people to make complaints. The GDC is just one of several bodies to which one can make complaints if one is not happy with the service from one’s dentist.

As the Minister and the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston have said, the whole point is to try to get complaints dealt with faster. That is a good thing in some ways, because it will reduce the stress not only for the patient but for dentists themselves. However, it is important that with the new, faster process, investigations are not skimped on. Can the Minister reassure me and my dentist in Lichfield that the new process will not mean that complaints are not be dealt with thoroughly? Some of them do need to be dealt with thoroughly, perhaps more so than at present.

I also make the point that the Opposition spokesman made about case examiners. It is important that they are seen to be independent, whether or not they are. In fact they have to be independent, but they also have to be seen to be independent. I am not altogether sure that people will be satisfied with the judgments that they make if it is thought that they are biased towards dentists, given that they are employees of the General Dental Council. I will be interested to hear what the Minister has to say about that.

The Opposition spokesman said that the GDC is one of the most expensive regulators in the country—perhaps the most expensive. My dentist makes the point that the GDC has increased its retention fees massively in recent years. Not every dentist is rolling in money, and the fees are quite a strain on their income. This might be slightly outside the remit of the order, but can the Minister assure me and my dentist, and indeed other dentists who might be interested, that the new structure will not directly cause GDC fees to go up for dentists? I look forward to hearing his reply.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ben Gummer]

On the hon. Gentleman’s wider point about the reform of healthcare regulation and why it is happening through section 60 orders at this stage, I understand his frustration. I hope I can reassure him by referring to my written ministerial statement just before Christmas, in which I outlined that we are hoping to take forward the Law Commission’s report and look at the work that the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care has put together on the reform of professional regulation, to see whether there is an ideal combination of the two pieces of work.

I have discussed the order at length with the regulators. They are content with the way we are going, and we will enter a period of extensive consultation, which I hope will lead to substantial reforms. However, that can be done only on a consensual basis. I very much hope to involve the Opposition in that work, because it is clearly important that healthcare regulation remains a non-partisan issue.

That takes me to another point that the hon. Gentleman raised: how we will guarantee the independence of the case examiners. I understand, especially given the recent history of the GDC, that he wants to ensure that independence in the first years. The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care has proved itself a worthy guardian of healthcare regulation in the past few years. Its reports, one of which he quoted in his speech, give an accurate picture of the state of healthcare regulation. It will audit the new system with assiduity and report back in its annual review about whether it is working.

My hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield referred to the fees gathered by the General Dental Council, which have increased in several of the past few years. I understand from the PSA’s last report that the GDC’s performance has improved somewhat over the past year, but it certainly has a great distance to make up. It is not for me to determine fee levels for healthcare regulators. However, with a number of fees having gone up recently, I made clear to all the regulators when we met last that I expected them to do everything within their powers to either freeze fees or, where they find can efficiencies, pass them back to their members if possible.

[Michael Fabricant]

Can my hon. Friend reassure me that the specific measures in the order will not lead directly, because of excess or extra costs, to increased fees?

[Ben Gummer]

I can assure my hon. Friend that the order will be cost-saving for the General Dental Council—the estimated savings are £2.5 million. It depends slightly on whether the increase in referrals to the GDC continues. If it does, that saving will be eaten up in the increased resources required to process claims. However, if the number of incidents stays the same or reduces, I agree: the logic would be that the GDC might find space to reduce the fees it charges to its members. That is exactly what I have encouraged all the regulators to look at—how can they make justice quicker, which is good for everyone? If they save money in the process, which should only be a secondary consideration, it should be passed on to their members. In some regulated professions, many people, such as nurses or associated healthcare professionals, are not on high wages, and the fee levels make a difference. The regulators are aware of my views, and I put them as strongly as I can without infringing on their independence.

I hope I have answered every one of the shadow Minister’s points.