Following the launch of the General Dental Council’s (GDC) consultation on the 2016 Annual Retention Fee (ARF), Dental Protection plans to continue dialogue with the GDC to help embed the recent encouraging improvements to fitness to practise procedures.
The 2014 proposal to introduce a 64% increase in the ARF payable by dentists was linked to the rising cost of fitness to practise procedures, and taking on board issues raised by Dental Protection and others, the GDC is making changes to ensure procedures are more efficient.
Kevin Lewis, Director at Dental Protection commented:
“It is great to see that the GDC is taking steps to make fitness to practise procedures fairer and more proportionate and we support the awaited Section 60 Order to give them more flexible powers to continue the improvements. We accept that the GDC will need to devise its 2016 budget on logical and credible case estimates, and since its fitness to practise procedures consume almost 80% of what the GDC spends each year, it will have significant implications for the required level of the ARF.
He continued,
“As the UK’s largest defence organisation for the dental profession, we appreciate the difficulty of predicting the number of cases - and their likely level of seriousness - for 12 or more months into the future. We will continue our dialogue with the GDC to maintain and embed the changes to fitness to practise procedures, whilst carefully monitoring developments around the setting of the 2016 ARF.”
For further information please contact Kim Watson, Media Relations Manager at MPS on +44 (0) 207 399 1428 or email [email protected]
Notes to Editors
- Read more about this issue in the blog by Kevin Lewis on the Dental Protection website.