The General Dental Council (GDC) has released details of draft plans to change guidelines about the temporary registration of dentists.
An online consultation on the issue is now open and closes on 22 July 2011.
Temporary registration allows dentists who are not eligible for full registration with the GDC to practise dentistry in the UK in supervised posts for training, teaching or research purposes only and for a limited period.
The proposed guidelines include:
• Clarifying the purpose of temporary registration based on the GDC’s role of public protection and upholding professional standards
• Making information about temporary registrants more widely available to the public
• Limiting the temporary registrant to working in a maximum of three hospitals in any one post
• Setting out more fully the responsibilities of the temporary registrants and their supervising consultants
• Describing in detail the arrangements in place to assure the quality of both posts and registrants, and the process of monitoring these
• Strengthening the GDC’s stance when it comes to English language testing
• Extending the GDC’s options when dealing with complaints about a temporary registrants’ fitness to practise in order to ensure public protection.
GDC chair of registration committee Elizabeth Davenport said: ‘While our proposed changes will directly affect a small number of temporary registrants, they will have a wider impact. We would particularly like to encourage those who work alongside, supervise or employ temporary registrants to take part in our consultation.
‘We want to make sure our plans will work not only to protect patients but to ensure high standards of dentistry are maintained.’
The online questionnaire can be found at www.gdc-uk.org.
