6 Oct 2005 - "Return of common sense"

The General Dental Council (GDC) is looking for volunteers to help resolve complaints about dental care – using their common sense.

Volunteers - members of the public and dental professionals - will sit on regional complaints panels and hear complaints that can’t otherwise be resolved.

Explained Gordon Miles, director of the new Dental Complaints Service, which is being set up and will be funded by the GDC:

“First, we’ll encourage dissatisfied patients to complain directly through a dental practice’s own complaints scheme. Then our advisers will try to sort out complaints informally with the patient and dental professional concerned. Only if they can’t resolve a complaint will it go to a panel.
“The aim is to resolve complaints informally – as fairly, efficiently, transparently and quickly as we can. That’s why local volunteers are important. It’s the return of common sense to complaints handling.”
Volunteers must be fair and open minded; able to question and weigh up the different sides of an issue; and be able to express themselves clearly and confidently.

Currently, there is an NHS dental complaints scheme, but private patients – including those who receive treatment from a dental hygienist privately – have limited options.

The Dental Complaints Service is due to launch next year. To find out more about volunteering to join a complaints panel, call 08456 120 540 (local rate) or visit the General Dental Council’s website www.gdc-uk.org and follow the links.

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For further information, contact: Mike Hutchinson (mike.hutchinson@dentalcomplaints.org.uk) on 020 7624 6257 or 07760 155 216.

Note to editors:

The Dental Complaints Service is being set up and will be funded by the General Dental Council to help resolve complaints by patients about private dental work. It aims to do this fairly, efficiently, transparently and quickly. NHS patients are covered by a different scheme. The GDC is setting up the Dental Complaints Service in line with its guidance to dental care professionals to “put patients' interests first and act to protect them”.

The GDC is the organisation which regulates dental professionals in the UK. All dentists, dental hygienists and dental therapists must be registered with the GDC to practise in the United Kingdom - whether they work in the NHS, private practice or any other form of practice. During 2006, the GDC will also start to register dental nurses and dental technicians.

The GDC sets and monitors the standards dental professionals must follow throughout their working lives. It does this by:
• registering qualified professionals,
• setting high standards of dental practice and behaviour,
• quality-assuring dental education,
• making sure dental professionals keep up to date, and
• helping if you want to make a complaint about a dental professional.

Note to broadcasters: Gordon Miles and Derek Prentice, who chairs the GDC Working Group charged with setting up the Dental Complaints Service, are available for interview.