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Flexibility is our Strength April 19-25, 2010United Kingdom Edition I have spent nearly 20 years defending hun- dreds of dentists before the various Committees of the General Dental Council (GDC) and so read Mr Good- win’s article with interest. Unfortunately, I fear that in a number of respects I found the article confusing and I hope you will permit me to offer some observations for the benefit of readers of the Dental Tribune. Fitness to Practise Procedures The Fitness to Practise pro- cedures at the GDC are fairly labyrinthine but Mr Goodwin’s article makes them appear more impenetrable than needs be. In- deed, I am still not sure wheth- er his article intends to refer to the Interim Orders Committee (“IOC”); the Professional Con- duct Committee; or the Investi- gating Committee. Put simply, all complaints and convictions notified to the Fitness to Practise Department at the GDC (other than those screened out at an early stage) are referred to an Investigating Committee for consideration. That Committee can decide to take no further action; issue an advice or a warning; or refer the case to one of the Practice Com- mittees. The Practice Commit- tees comprise the Professional Conduct Committee, the Health Committee and the Professional Performance Committee. Their titles are self-explanatory and the Committees deal with con- duct, health and performance is- sues respectively. A practitioner receiving any correspondence from the Fitness to Practise Department of the GDC would be well advised to seek immediate assistance from his defence organisation (or a suitably experienced lawyer if he does not have defence organisa- tion membership). The IOC There is a further strand to the GDC’s Fitness to Practise proce- dures which is also referred to in Mr Goodwin’s article. This is the IOC. This Committee has the power to impose an Interim Or- der upon a practitioner’s registra- tion for a period up to 18 months (and thereafter the High Court can extend the Order for longer) if the Committee consider that it is necessary to do so to protect the safety of the public; or the practitioner; or it is otherwise in the public interest to do so. This Committee decides whether it is necessary to impose an Interim Order usually until such time as the case has been considered by a Practice Committee. It does not make any determination as to whether a practitioner’s fitness to practise is impaired, which is a decision only a Practice Com- mittee can make. Cases may be referred to the IOC at various stages of the Fit- ness to Practise procedures in- cluding at the outset (ie before the case is even considered by an Investigating Committee); or by the Investigating Committee fol- lowing its deliberations. It is right to indicate that time can be quite tight when prepar- ing for an IOC hearing, although this should never be a barrier to a properly prepared case. In the event that a case is re- ferred to the IOC, the appropri- ate document to be considered by the dentist and his defence team is entitled Guidance for the Interim Orders Committee – the latest version of which was pub- lished by the GDC in October 2009 and available on their web- site at www.gdc-uk.org (and not the document referred to in Mr Goodwin’s article). Mr Goodwin’s article indi- cates that a dentist will need to take a number of steps to de- fend his position in the event of an IOC referral. In reality those steps will be taken on his be- half by his solicitor albeit with very considerable input from the practitioner. These are likely to include the taking of detailed instructions (not necessarily in the form of a statement) - for the eyes of the defence team only; the obtaining of any expert evi- dence required; the obtaining of references (if appropri- ate although they are not frequently used at an IOC hearing); the obtaining of any documentary evi- dence which may assist to present the dentist’s defence; and a careful consideration of any con- ditions which might be proposed to the Commit- tee on the dentist’s behalf. It is highly likely that the solicitors will also brief a barrister on a dentist’s be- half who will present the defence case before the Commit- tee at the hearing. It is important to emphasise that the IOC is required to review its Order every six months which provides an opportunity for the dentist (or the GDC) to apply for amendments to the Order if there has been a change of cir- cumstances (either for the better or worse). Finally, Mr Goodwin, very openly, accepts that he has not dealt with what he describes as the “appeal procedure” that is available against Interim Orders. It is not, in fact, an “appeal pro- cedure” but an application to set aside an Interim Order, which is made to the High Court. My firm obtained such an Order against the GDC in 2008 in the case of R (on the application of Shiekh) –v- General Dental Coun- cil (2007) which is now referred to as a benchmark by lawyers in most GDC and GMC Interim Or- ders hearings. It should be noted that an application of this nature is unlikely to succeed except in unusual circumstances and the practitioner (or his defence or- ganisation) is put to a consider- able costs risk if it fails. My firm has produced a brochure headed “The General Dental Council’s Fitness to Prac- tise Procedures” which I would be delighted to make available to any readers if they would like to contact me at c.morris@hemp- sons.co.uk (or call me on 020 7839 0278). DT Chris Morris comments on DT’s article Facing the Judge and Jury published in Volume 4, No. 5 of Dental Tribune Commentary on “Fac- ing the judge and jury” About the author Chris Morris BDS LLM MBA is a part- ner at Hempsons Solicitors and Head of the Dental Team. He first qualified as a dentist and spent several years in general dental practice before retrain- ing as a solicitor with Hempsons. Chris specialises in all aspects of dental law acting for defence organisations, den- tal institutions and many individual practitioners. He is the current Presi- dent of the Dental Law & Ethics Forum. Facing the Judge and Jury

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