GDC publishes report on causes of death during fitness to practise investigations

We have published a new report on dental professionals who have died while fitness to practise (FtP) concerns were investigated or remediated.

The report, the first of its kind for us, covers the period 2019 to 2022. During this time, 20 dental professionals died while their cases were active, with causes of death categorised as natural, external, or unspecified, and one subcategory of suicide. We have taken steps to ensure that individuals cannot be identified.

The report has included deaths in the subcategory of suicide when “suicide” was listed on the death certificate or notification. By convention, death certificates in Scotland and Northern Ireland do not use the word “suicide” or any synonym of it. Deaths that occurred overseas have been categorised as unspecified.

Lord Toby Harris, GDC Chair, said:

“The report serves as a call for everyone in the dental sector to reflect on the environment, systems and processes involved in being a dental professional. It took longer than we expected to complete the work and some of the issues have been complex, but we have delivered process improvements in parallel and taken care to ensure we can be confident in the data reported.

“Every death is a tragedy, and when the data and what we are doing to improve FtP are put aside, what is left is the death of people, some in tragic circumstances, and we must consider the families, loved ones and colleagues for whom the pain and hurt are still very raw, and we offer them our condolences.”  

We have prioritised improvements to our FtP process to minimise the significant negative health and wellbeing impacts of investigations on dental professionals. Recent improvements include revised communications and staff training, and we are currently piloting the use of initial inquiries to enable the assessment of clinical practice concerns earlier in the process and improve timeliness.

We engaged with relevant stakeholders and Sir Louis Appleby, Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group, in the production and reporting of the data.

You can find the full report here.

If you are affected by the information reported or the issues set out in the report, Samaritans are available, day or night, 365 days a year. Whoever you are and whatever you’re facing, the Samaritans will not judge you or tell you what to do. They are available to listen, so you don’t have to face it alone. You can call the Samaritans free on 116 123 or email them at jo@samaritans.org.