The General Dental Council (GDC) today announced a further extension to its initial inquiries process to include isolated cases of perceived unprofessional behaviour, as part of ongoing efforts to improve timeliness and proportionality in fitness to practise investigations.
The GDC is now including cases that involve isolated reports of alleged low-level misconduct, such as perceived rudeness or abruptness, in the process. Complaints from a single patient about low-level misconduct that include a low-level clinical practice issue will also be included.
The extension follows the successful implementation of the initial inquiries process for single patient clinical practice concerns, adopted in November 2024 after a successful pilot.
The streamlined approach removes indemnity checks and limits processes used to determine if there are wider concerns to be investigated. The initial inquiries process is being used when less serious issues are raised, and where seriousness can be determined by making initial inquiries with those involved.
Cases indicating a potential pattern of such behaviour or those that involve a registrant who has had allegations raised about their fitness to practise within the previous 12 months, will be excluded. Cases involving more serious misconduct, such as alleged verbal abuse or severe aggression will proceed in the normal way to a full investigation.
Theresa Thorp, Executive Director of Regulation at the GDC, said: “This new approach seeks to maintain public confidence in the professions while reducing the negative impact that lengthy investigations can have on the health and wellbeing of participants.”
The GDC has opened 378 cases since the launch of the initial inquiries process, of which 83% (314) have been assessed. Of these assessed cases, 19% (60) have been referred to case examiners. Cases in the initial inquiries process are achieving a median completion time of 13 weeks — significantly faster than the current 30-week performance target for cases to complete the assessment stage.
The GDC has also continued to progress older cases as quickly as it can to lessen the potential negative impacts of investigations. The regulator had 73 cases open for more than 51 weeks and 12 cases open for more than 151 weeks, at the end of May. These older cases represented around 12% of the total assessment caseload at the time.
Many older cases are awaiting third-party decisions such as court dates in criminal prosecutions, outcomes of criminal proceedings, charging decisions from the Crown Prosecution Service, or the conclusions of police or NHS Counter Fraud investigations, and the GDC regularly reviews these to ensure appropriate and swift resolution where possible.
The GDC’s ongoing efforts to improve the fitness to practise process and plans for the next three years are detailed in its consultation on the Corporate Strategy 2026-2028.
“We are particularly keen to receive feedback and ideas on how the fitness to practise process could be improved to ensure investigations are concluded in a timely way so we can minimise the stress on all parties,” Thorp added.
