Red Taping and the Dental Industry in the UK

The BDA (British Dental Association) is not satisfied by the “red taping” that has been going on lately, and they are calling for action from the part of all dentists who are just as unsatisfied with the new regulations to join the Government’s Red Tape Challenge.

One such set of quite disproportionate and duplicative requirements are being set by the Care Quality Commission recently. However, there are much more such imposed ruled and regulations that make dentists boycott these implementations.

“Red taping” is basically a term that describes excessive regulation, or the imposition of rules that are rigid and bureaucratic in nature, which are only meant to hinder the decision making and acting of certain professionals.

The Red Tape Challenge basically gives an opportunity to the public to express their opinion regarding legislation, and to point out which are those legislative implementations that are ineffective, useless or unjustifiable.

The Governmental Departments will have to take the job very seriously, and justify not less than 21,000 statutory rules or regulations that today are in force. Some of the fields that will be exempt from this scrutiny are:

• National security laws
• Taxation rules and regulations
• EU laws

The Red Tape Challenge “exercise” basically applies everywhere the governments has jurisdiction within the UK, including Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

According to the Chair of the British Dental Association’s Executive Board Dr. Susie Sanderson, these initiatives are very welcome for the BDA that has long wanted to get rid of red taping in the dental healthcare field. Two of the changes they will ask for, are:

• The exemption of dental providers from the rules and regulations of the Care Quality Commission
• Exemption from licensing by the Monitor (which is the new healthcare economic regulator)

Further, Dr. Susie Sanderson says that all the members hope that this red taping exercise is going to be something more than just a “window dressing”, and that there will be observed reductions in the unnecessary legislation pertaining to the field of dentistry. The first campaign against red taping in dentistry by the BDA, has taken place last November.