Chair of the GDC

When a non-dental appointment was made to be Chair of the GDC my heart, and I believe those of many of my colleagues, sank.

So it was with dismay rather than surprise that I read the views of the Chair of the GDC, Mr Bill Moyes, in the Times recently about making a visit to the dentist more like a supermarket trip. Mr Moyes said that his vision for reshaping dentistry is towards customer power and he would be very pleased if patient pressure could produce a Lidl to Waitrose model, moving away from a professional relationship to creating a customer relationship whereby, if the price isn't liked, the customer goes elsewhere. Mr Moyes believes that this would be more effective in exposing poor care than regular inspections.

I fundamentally disagree with this simplistic view and I believe it would be a retrograde step for both our patients and our profession. In my view, it is a mistake to try and commoditize healthcare, valuing it only on price. In a market that is already regulated (as dentistry is), the use of market forces alone risks standards being driven down to a level below those which are acceptable to the regulator. This will result in an increase in the number of complaints and not an increase in the quality of service. Concomitantly, the most important tenet of our profession of putting patients' interests first will be lost.