Additional stakeholder update for December

The GDC have issued a further update for December, which can be viewed below:

Additional update and best wishes for the festive period

Thank you

To everyone working to deliver dental services and those supporting them, thank you for all you’ve done, and continue to do, to ensure patients can safely access the care they need in these challenging and uncertain times.

The pandemic continues to put huge pressure on dentistry and oral healthcare in the UK. As the regulator of the whole dental team, we respect and appreciate the continued efforts to provide safe patient care in these difficult circumstances. Thank you.

All of us at the GDC send you and your colleagues our best wishes for the festive period and we look forward to working with you in 2022.

COVID-19 vaccination for dental teams in England

All dental professionals in England will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they are exempt for medical reasons, by 1 April 2022. Subject to these changes being agreed by Parliament, this will be a legal requirement for all workers aged 18 and over, working in patient-facing roles in an environment regulated by the CQC, both in the NHS or independent health sector.

There are no legal requirements for vaccination in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Our guidance for dental teams on vaccination is available online.

The ORE: a flawed system made worse by the pandemic with further challenges ahead

There is no doubt that the pandemic has exacerbated the problems caused by the legislative constraints on the Overseas Registration Examination (ORE), creating very difficult circumstances for many dentists who want to practise dentistry in the UK. Dentists who register in this way are a vital part of our dental workforce.

We need an ORE system with enough flexibility that ensures those applying to the register meet the same rigorous standards expected of UK dentists. This points to the urgent need for reform. Stefan Czerniawski, Executive Director, Strategy, explains what’s causing the current issues and what’s needed to solve them.

Share your stories of professionalism in dentistry

We’ve been working with patients and professionals to come to a shared understanding of what professionalism in dentistry means today. This latest research considers professionalism in action, and builds on previous work supporting the development of new principles of professionalism for the dental team and our review of standards and guidance.  

Research participants were asked to reflect on the experiences and views of dental patients and professionals of professionalism, to reflect on the varying perspectives, and some of the reasons behind both the similarities and differences. The results of the work are shared in more detail by Policy Manager, Kristen Bottrell, particularly the importance of context and judgement.

The need to support dental professionals in a diverse range of practice environments and different situations points to the need to learn from each other about what professionalism means in dentistry. This is why we’re asking professionals and are stakeholders to get in touch and share stories of professionalism.  

If you’ve heard about or seen someone in the dental team show just how professional they are, or have your own ways of demonstrating professionalism, we’d like to hear from you. We’ll share the best stories online and on our social media feeds.

Visit our stories of professionalism webpage for details.