The General Dental Council, or GDC, has today announced a change to its policy of publishing the full determinations of its Interim Orders Committee. This is the right call, bearing in mind that Interim Orders are without prejudice measures which are imposed without any findings of fact.
It’s very sad that this change has only come about following a Regulation 28 Report To Prevent Future Deaths issued to the GDC by HM Area Coroner for Central & South East Kent in November 2023. In that Report, the Coroner noted that the tragic death by suicide of a dentist, Mr Barry Lall, occurred after a GDC Interim Orders determination “put detailed allegations into the public domain via the GDC website, at a stage before any final determination had taken place”. This had a “tremendous” impact on Mr Lall as “an extremely private individual” who denied the allegations. The Coroner expressed concern “that others going through a similar process may also suffer a detrimental effect to their mental health” and “there exists a risk that future deaths will occur”.
There remains a very strong association between fitness to practise proceedings and death by suicide, but there is a great deal of support available for dentists or DCPs experiencing mental distress. Some schemes which provide completely free, confidential and high-quality help include:
BDA Benevolent Fund: https://lnkd.in/eKGaTdGN
DHST: https://lnkd.in/epRPAyCS
ConfiDental: https://lnkd.in/ewjyZK4n
Frontline19: https://lnkd.in/eRi7tJMh
NHS Practitioner Health: https://lnkd.in/esj9dN-5
Project5: https://www.project5.org/
The GDC update referred to above (and the Coroner’s Regulation 28 Report) can be viewed below:
GDC Update – https://lnkd.in/eah4fXEy
Prevention of Future Deaths Report – https://lnkd.in/eu-zmPYF