General Dental Council Indemnity Consultation Underway, UK

Main Category: Dentistry
Article Date: 08 Jan 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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The GDC's indemnity consultation, which focuses on dental professionals' requirement to make sure they have 'adequate and appropriate'* insurance cover, is now underway.

The GDC already requires all dental professionals to ensure that patients are able to claim compensation for any harm caused by dental treatment that they may be entitled to. This is a key aspect of the GDC's role to protect patients. This professional requirement has been in place for many years and is currently upheld through the GDC's "fitness to practise" procedures. As a further safeguard, the GDC is looking to use new powers to make legally binding rules about "adequate and appropriate insurance".

There are three possible ways that professionals can make certain that they have adequate cover: insurance, discretionary indemnity and NHS indemnity.

The consultation aims to gather views on the essential minimum requirements for each of these three types of arrangements.

There will be further consultations to consider other important issues at a later date, such as the question of whether a dental professional can rely on arrangements made by an employer, or must have their own cover.

The indemnity consultation can be completed online.

* The only adequate and appropriate arrangements recognised by the GDC are:
- dental defence organisation membership
- professional indemnity insurance held by a professional or their employer
- NHS indemnity

Notes

1. The consultation can be completed online by following the links on the 'Current consultations' page of the GDC's website. There is also additional information on the professional indemnity market in the UK.

2. The consultation will close on Friday March 6 2009. Initial responses will be analysed electronically and reports of these will be available on the website.

3. The consultation aims to gather views on two lists of essential minimum requirements for cover that registrants may have. Of the two lists that have been developed by the GDC, one is the essential minimum requirements for insurance, and the other is the essential minimum requirements for discretionary indemnity.

General Dental Council