The General Dental Council (GDC) has published a new report on dental professionals who have died while Fitness to Practise (FtP) concerns were investigated or remediated.

The report, the first of its kind for the GDC, covers the period 2019 to 2022. During this time, 20 dental professionals died while their cases were active, with causes of death categorised as natural, external, or unspecified, and one subcategory of suicide. The GDC has taken steps to ensure that individuals cannot be identified.

The report has included deaths in the subcategory of suicide when ‘suicide' was listed on the death certificate or notification. By convention, death certificates in Scotland and Northern Ireland do not use the word ‘suicide' or any synonym of it. Deaths that occurred overseas have been categorised as unspecified.

Lord Toby Harris, GDC Chair, said: ‘The report serves as a call for everyone in the dental sector to reflect on the environment, systems and processes involved in being a dental professional. It took longer than we expected to complete the work and some of the issues have been complex, but we have delivered process improvements in parallel and taken care to ensure we can be confident in the data reported.

‘Every death is a tragedy, and when the data and what we are doing to improve FtP are put aside, what is left is the death of people, some in tragic circumstances, and we must consider the families, loved ones and colleagues for whom the pain and hurt are still very raw, and we offer them our condolences.'

Len D'Cruz, Head of BDA Indemnity said: ‘This is a long overdue report, demanded by the profession over a considerable period of time in response to the many tragic deaths related to a GDC investigation.

‘The GMC were far more responsive in doing their own reviews. One suicide is too many and the important thing is for the GDC to recognise the impact their processes have on the lives of caring dental professionals. Of great concern still is the inordinately long delays for a case to be concluded, the unconscionable silence that characterises these long periods of time when nothing seems to happen and the impenetrable bureaucracy that many registrants facing FtP investigation have to deal with.

‘We can only hope the lessons are learned and changes implemented with some urgency.'

Dr George Wright, Deputy Dental Director at Dental Protection said: ‘While this long-awaited report makes for difficult reading, it is the first step in understanding the extent of this problem and we see this as a breakthrough initiative.

‘It also builds on other recent progress to improve fitness to practise processes, such as the review of correspondence sent to registrants during an investigation, the implementation of a pilot to expedite the resolution of simple cases, and the review into the amount of information released publicly when the Interim Orders Committee is considering FtP concerns.

‘There is however much more to be done, and we hope the much-needed transparency on deaths during FtP investigations will continue, with regular reporting of this data combined with ongoing efforts by the regulator to further reduce the impact of its investigations.

‘Reform to the GDC's outdated legislation is essential to reduce investigation delays, which we know significantly impact mental wellbeing. Reform could give the regulator greater discretion to not take forward investigations where allegations clearly do not require action, so it could then focus on the most serious allegations and process them faster. The Government must expedite the reform of the GDC.'