The revised General Dental Council (GDC) guidance on professional indemnity and insurance will help dental professionals to sieve through any misinformation as they weigh up their options and choose protection that is right for them.
In its response to the GDC consultation, Dental Protection welcomes the updated guidance and particularly notes the timeliness of the clarity in the wake of the ongoing debate about the different indemnity and insurance products available.
Dr Raj Rattan, Dental Director at Dental Protection said: “This proposed draft guidance provides a clear explanation of what dental professionals must consider in order to ensure they are compliant with legal and regulatory requirements with regards to indemnity and insurance.
“In our experience, not all dental professionals understand the differences in products available or the implications of changing to a different product. In this context, we believe that this draft guidance is a positive step forward in helping dental professionals understand the options available and make an informed decision on the protection that is right for them.
“The draft guidance contains a checklist of questions to ask yourself including what limits and conditions apply to the claims protection. It also addresses questions such as whether assistance with a fitness to practise investigation and support with wellbeing are provided, which are important for registrants to have in place but are not made available by all providers.
“The GDC’s statistics show that between 2018 and 2021, 34% of dentists and 72% of dental care professionals who had a hearing did not have legal representation, and that registrants without legal representation were much more likely to receive a harsher sanction. We therefore believe it is appropriate and right for the GDC to highlight the importance of assistance with fitness to practise investigations within its indemnity guidance.”
“At Dental Protection, we take a balanced approach of explaining the different products available but sadly not all market participants do so. This draft guidance from the GDC will be helpful for dental professionals in weighing up their options.”
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About Dental Protection
Dental Protection is a registered trademark and a trading name of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”). MPS is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 300,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.
Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.
Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our workshops, E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.
MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.