Has anything changed?

In 2014 the BDA defeated the General Dental Council in the High Court over a flawed fees consultation. The court however declined to reverse the 55 per cent increase that emerged from that consultation. 

 The GDC remains the most expensive healthcare regulator in the UK – at £890 its annual retention fee is more than twice the average professional fee – and it was recently identified as the worst performing regulator by the Professional Standards Authority in its Annual Performance Review.

 Mick Armstrong, chair of the British Dental Association said:

 “Today the General Dental Council has announced a consultation on not changing their fees. We hope they aren’t expecting us to take any comfort from this, as for 40,000 dentists ‘business as usual’ means another year shackled to the most expensive, and least effective health regulator in Britain. 

 “This latest announcement shows nothing has changed. Dentists are still paying double the average for UK health professionals. Registrants are still on the receiving end of the same one-sided conversation from a cavalier regulator, which continues to ignore its own failings.

 “What we’ve not seen is any real willingness from a failed regulator to get on top of its day job, and to finally draw a line under years of mission creep. For our part we will be subjecting these numbers to forensic scrutiny. We encourage all colleagues to have their say, so we can see what GDC’s commitment to ‘transparency’ and ‘openness’ really means.”