My dodgy dentist

welshdent

Its just a form to say you consent to NHS treatment. Issues such as the previous case relate to false claims i.e. false people and dead people. Reading the form wouldnt make any difference to you. If you are in a position to sign i.e. you are present and are alive then the likelihood is your dentist is not being fraudulent!!! If you DONT sign then dont expect any treatment because that is the form that allows us to get paid.

METAL_MICKEY

It seems like only yesterday i had the pleasure of a totally surreal conversation with a well known Bristol dentist. Here's the background:

A patient's exemption claim had been checked and as agency checks came back negative she got a letter req recovery of NHS charges and a penalty fine. As the Pen letter also mentions potential fraud not unsurprisingly she called up a tad upset as she had not attended that dentist for nearly three years. DOH!

I naturally advised that she speak to the dentist concerned who was suitably apologetic and blamed it on a clerical error. She didn't really buy it and the dentist then called me to explain. He was particularly smooth and charming on the phone and agreed to an adjustment. What he didn'[t know was that investigations were well advanced in respect of making claims for patients who had not attended for years and even some who were deceased.

End result was a fraud worth £77k, conviction for seven counts of false accounting, 12 months imprisonment suspended for 24 months, costs of £5k, 300 hours unpaid community work and remvoved from GDC register.

Thankfully, that type of dentist is in the minority but my abiding memory was how engaging he was when explaining the 'clerical oversight' and how i gamefully resisted the urge to let on how much of a crook he was.:o

Pennylane

Well, they seem to have got off very lightly in court.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/crime/dentists_avoid_jail_after_46_000_fraud_1_1476729

No doubt I will see my former dentist doing some of his 300 hours unpaid work in a charity shop near me soon!:rotfl::rotfl: Crickey, that's hard punishment indeed.

There's still a chance they could be struck off though (for a few years).

j.e.j.

I find it interesting that they've been found guilty on about 20 charges, got a 12-month suspended prison sentence hanging over them.. and are still (legally) able to practice!

I guess they will have to wait until the General Dental Council does its own investigation. It'll be interesting to see what the outcome of that is.

Pennylane

j.e.j. wrote: »

I find it interesting that they've been found guilty on about 20 charges, got a 12-month suspended prison sentence hanging over them.. and are still (legally) able to practice!

I guess they will have to wait until the General Dental Council does its own investigation. It'll be interesting to see what the outcome of that is.

They should be struck off for several years. I suppose they can't strike them off until all the court case is done and dusted.

j.e.j.

I got the impression the General Dental Council investigation is completely separate from the court case. Not 100% sure, though. Does fiddling the books come under 'malpractice'.. it ought to!

brook2jack

Any prosecution however minor or major is automatically reported to the GDC.
After the court case a seperate GDC hearing is then heard no matter if the charge is very "minor" and/or has no relationship to dentistry as a professional is expected to behave in a manner that is totally honest and to do otherwise brings a charge of "bringing the profession into disrepute. " There may even be a hearing if the dentist is found not guilty as there is a different burden of proof in a GDC hearing.

Any suspension but most particularly one of five years virtually means they would never be able to work again because at the end of the sentence they would need to reapply to enter the register and it would be virtually impossible for them to have fufilled the criteria during the five years they were off to get reinstated.

So the net result is they are both bankrupt, one has a broken marriage, they will both probably lose forever the possibility of working as dentists in this country again , they have lost reputation and all for a net gain of £5000 to £9000.

It is a blow for the vast vast majority of dentists who slog their guts out honestly and strive for highest professional standards.

j.e.j.

Well, I guess we'll see (or maybe not, - would the GDC hearing get publicity and press reporting the same as the court case or is it more 'behind closed doors'?)

Not sure if the dentist with the German name is actually German, in which case I guess he could possibly go and practice there, IF the GDC do decide they're going to de-frock the pair of them :rotfl:

brook2jack

GDC cases are open to the public and all proceedings are published on the GDC website and GDC publications. Looking up a dentists registration will also inform if there are sanctions against them. As the GDC supervises dentists, hygienists, technicians, therapists and dental nurses and there has been a massive explosion in cases brought partly as a result of no fee upfront litigation there is little reporting in the general press. One case I know of came in front of professional standards from a neighbour complaining a dentists garden fence came three inches onto their land and the dentist behaved unprofessionally in doing so!

Unfortunately no other country in the world polices it's dentists as strictly as the UK so a dentist who qualified in South Africa can return there to practice.

METAL_MICKEY

I think my old colleague Julian Scott gets involved in lots of disciplinary hearings as an expert witness.