Can you trust your Dentist? (Five)
The latest of Donal MacIntyre's investigative reports for Five exposes alarming failings in the way dentists are policed in the UK.
The General Dental Council says it regulates dentists and protects patients. But MacIntyre travels the country meeting people who have suffered at the hands of rogue dentists, and reveals the way the system fails the patient it's supposed to protect.
He shows how the dental profession deals with sex offenders in its own ranks – allowing men who've served prison sentences for sexually assaulting patients back into work with no conditions attached. It even allows one dentist to continue working even when he is currently on the Sex Offenders Register.
MacIntyre uncovers how a dentist and an optician – both convicted of child pornography charges and given identical punishments by the courts – were dealt with by their respective professional bodies: the Optical Council imposed its strongest sanction and struck the optician's name from their register. Yet the Dental Council handed down a much milder 12 month suspension.
MacIntyre asks what's so special about dentists.
With hundreds of people prepared to queue all night for an NHS dentist he considers whether the country's shortage of dentists is leading to over lenient scrutiny.
The government's solution for the shortage is to recruit more dentists from abroad but MacIntyre questions whether the regulation of foreign dentists is effective. He shows how a Dutch dentist with a conviction for involvement in a kidnapping remains on the Dental Register and asks what protection the NHS patient is being offered against other rogue foreign dentists.
At least one in four of us are now paying for private dental treatment but MacIntyre shows how the regulators fail the private patient. He meets a woman in Suffolk whose dentist left a swab in her crown for 18 months.
When she tried to complain she discovered that as a private patient her only
form of redress was to hire a lawyer.
She then found out that her dentist wasn't even insured – leaving her unable to claim compensation for botched dental work.
MacIntyre asks why the dental regulators have delayed introducing compulsory insurance for dentists.
And why it's taking so long to provide private patients with adequate protection.
tuesday, 20.00-21.00
Five
http://www.five.tv/media/pdf/10081264.pdf
