Legal experts CQC

A firm of dental law experts has called on the British government to abandon plans to register dental professionals with the Care Quality Commission, labelling it a waste of time and money.

Under current plans, dental professionals-- including dentists, nurses, hygienist, therapists, dental technicians, and orthodontic therapists--need to register with the CQC by April 1, 2011.

They will then fall under the regulation of the CQC, which was set up by the Labour Government in 2009 to act as a watchdog for large health and social care organizations, such as NHS trusts and private hospitals.

But legal experts say the CQC regulations duplicate those already in place and policed by the General Dental Council and therefore will not improve patient safety in any way.

The Dental Law Partnership, whose directors are qualified as dentists and solicitors, has called on the Coalition Government to abandon the plans.

Joint Managing Director Chris Dean has called on dental professionals to support the firm’s call by voting for its submission on the Your Freedom web site, set up to gauge public opinion for changes in unnecessary legislation.

“As both dentists and solicitors, we are profoundly concerned regarding the impact of the CQC regulation upon the delivery of dental care in England," Dean said.

“Our analysis of both the CQC regulations and the existing jurisdiction of the GDC indicates widespread duplication both in terms of coverage and substantive requirements. It is not likely to produce any significant improvement in patient safety or treatment outcomes, yet will increase the administrative and financial burden of both individual practitioners, the CQC and, ultimately, on central government. It would therefore be an unnecessary and wasteful use of significant resources.”

Dean has made his case in greater detail in a submission to the Your Freedom Web site, set up last week by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to gauge public support for changes in legislation.

Now he is urging dental professionals, as well as those working in related sectors, to support the submission by registering online at http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk and voting for the submission.

The submission can be found at http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/cutting-business-and-third-sector-regulations/remove-dental-professionals-from-regulation-by-the-care-quality-commission or http://bit.ly/cqcregulations.

Launching the Your Freedom Web site last week, Clegg said that the Labour Government had spent 13 years passing thousands of new laws and regulations--at the cost of Britons’ liberty.

Your Freedom was, he said, the government’s way of calling for people’s ideas “on how to protect our hard-won liberties and repeal unnecessary laws,” adding, “we want to know how best to scale back excessive regulation.”

According to Dean, the CQC regulation of dentists is therefore a perfect example of what the Web site has been set up to find.

"If the Government wants to know about unnecessary legislation and excessive regulation which has little to no benefit to anybody, he would be hard-pressed to find a better example than this,” he said.

For more information, go to www.dentallaw.co.uk.

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