Is your dental website GDC compliant?

08 Feb Is your dental website GDC compliant?

Just the other day I saw a Facebook post advertising a new all singing all dancing dental practice website, actually for a brand new practice too.

I checked it out, as I tend to do. On the surface it looked good, clean lines, not too busy or too much content but then I noticed more. Who worked there? Why was there no mention of the treating dentists? Further inspection within the Facebook account showed there were two dentists but nowhere were they mentioned in the website and no mention of their full name and qualifications.

Let’s remember you don’t need to have a website, although I would always recommend one. However, if you are going to have one at least do it properly. It’s really not that hard to be GDC compliant and apart from the obvious advantages of being GDC compliant there really are advantages to potential patients knowing who they are going to be treated by. I certainly wouldn’t want to be treated by someone whom I didn’t even know their name let alone their qualifications.

So at the risk of being boring I thought I would list the attributes you need to include on your dental website to be GDC compliant.

The following is taken directly from the GDC’s Guidance on Ethical Advertising:

Websites In line with European guidance for all dental professionals providing dental care mentioned on the site the following information must be displayed:

1. their professional qualification and the country from which that qualification is derived; and
2. their GDC registration number

Dental practice websites must display the following information:

1. the name and geographic address at which the dental service is established;
2. contact details of the dental service, including e-mail address and telephone number;
3. the GDC’s address and other contact details, or a link to the GDC website;
4. details of the practice’s complaints procedure and information of who patients may contact if they are not satisfied with the response (namely the relevant NHS body for NHS treatment and the Dental Complaints Service for private treatment) and
5. the date the website was last updated.

Update the information showing on your website regularly so that it accurately reflects the personnel at the practice and the service offered.

It is also worth mentioning this last point. You do have a responsibility to keep your website up to date when there are changes to your team members and services and potential patients will be confused if there is a disparity between your social media posts and your website. Consistency is key as well as accuracy.

If you have concerns that your website falls short in these areas it may be time to consider some changes to your website or even a new one?