Letters to the Editor

The guest editorial in the first Dental Update of 2020 by Conor O'Malley recounting his experience is an appalling example of the actions of the DCS and GDC.

I've read the article three times with increasing incredulity at every reading. We have, as a profession, ‘allowed’ the authorities to take over the GDC from the profession from the time when we could elect peers to sit in judgement on us. The patients are not being served as well as when dentists were much more involved in the procedures of the GDC; one wonders what the point of the DCS is when it puts cases like this straight to the GDC with no attempt at resolution, which I understood was to be their prime objective. As Dr O'Malley correctly points out, the patient could have had all her fees refunded at the very beginning of her ‘complaint’ if she so wished and, consequently, lost that option by the actions of the DCS and GDC.