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BDA blasts 'can't quite cope' CQC chaos
11th Oct 2010
The Care Quality Commission is stalling on giving dentists the information they need about registration, despite discussions between the health watchdog and dentist representatives.
A recent meeting between Cynthia Bower, chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), and John Milne and Susie Sanderson, of the British Dental Association (BDA), had raised hopes of clarification over the whole process of registration with the health watchdog body.
But these were dashed by the CQC's failure to clear up the questions raised by the dental representatives.
The only information they gleaned was that the number of crown post offices able to countersign CRB checks will quadruple but, despite pressure from the BDA, the CQC failed to confirm the exact number of post offices or their locations.
And the BDA is still trying to confirm whether all practice staff require CRB checks.
Nicknaming the CQC, ‘Can't Quite Cope' in her BDA website blog last week, Susie, chair of the executive board, writes: ‘The BDA has been saying for a long time now that the role that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is taking on in registering dental practices is inappropriate.
‘It's with a particularly heavy heart that I sit at the BDA's London headquarters this afternoon writing that, more than a week after that meeting took place, we still don't have firm information about what the CQC and the Post Office will be doing differently. Quite frankly, that smacks of a long-winded bureaucratic process somewhere. We think we've won a concession on the number of post offices at which you'll be able to gain your CRB check, but we don't know for certain. We think that the improved information and inconsistency we need may be forthcoming, but we don't know.'
She adds: ‘If this is how the CQC, or as I'm beginning to refer to them Can't Quite Cope, thinks it needs to act to reassure dentists, then I shudder to think how it's going to behave if it thinks it needs to censure a practice.'
The BDA is also trying to get confirmation on exactly who, within the practice, will require CRB checks.
Dentists throughout England are reported to be facing severe practical problems in the registration process.
Criticisms include the very tight timetable to complete the registration process and the ‘duplicative and inappropriate nature' of compliance requirements.
The BDA's recent general dental practice committee meeting gave vent to the profession's anger where representatives demanded a delay so that practices would not be in danger of missing deadlines or be forced to close while waiting for the formalities to be completed.
The committee was particularly appalled at having to enrol for something before knowing cost.
A BDA spokesperson said that the CQC understands the system was unpopular and also accepted that the process had been rushed and was far from ideal, but it was ‘confident that it could pull it round'.
Planning ahead, the CQC chief executive promises to co-operate with the BDA to resolve problems as they arise and provide the profession with the information it needs.
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