Adopting Good Practice in Gibraltar

Gibraltar, one of the iconic Pillars of Hercules of antiquity, has been a British Overseas Territory for 320 years. However, Gibraltar is very much the epitome of a modern, bustling Mediterranean territory whose population swells daily with many thousands of tourists and cross frontier workers. Forged from many different peoples over centuries, Gibraltarians have a strong sense of identity and are at least bilingual with Spanish being widely spoken.

Gibraltar’s institutions, including its dental sector, all originally derive from the UK although we have long had full autonomy to legislate and run our affairs. Consequently, the Good Practice Scheme has been the ideal quality assurance programme to raise standards in dental clinics along Gibraltar’s high street.

Using British Good Practice in Gibraltar

Dentists in Gibraltar are regulated by our Minister for Health and local legislation obliges us to comply with the GDC’s code of ethics. However, members of the dental sector workforce do not necessarily have to be exclusively UK trained with EU qualified colleagues also legally entitled to work here.

The Gibraltar Dental Association represents most dentists and dental clinics in Gibraltar. Our membership is predominantly UK trained. We have our own standards, ethics, and code of conduct which incorporate those of the GDC to help ensure that our members run their affairs in the manner expected of them.

We therefore took the view that it was important for Gibraltar’s public to have an internationally recognised yard stick of quality available on the high street, the Good Practice Scheme, to determine which practices were verifiably operating to British standards.

We liaised with our colleagues in the BDA and agreed that it was unfeasible to do such an in-depth programme in person in the UK or to fly UK based colleagues out to Gibraltar as required. In the end, all difficulties vanished by agreeing to form part of a pilot, a wholly online version of Good Practice training.

What you get from Good Practice courses

The courses are a one stop shop for getting dental surgeries up to standard and they really help with teamwork. You get a formalised structure to work from and a great deal of resources. Patients have a better experience as a result of dental surgeries adhering to Good Practice policies and standards.

There are a breadth of things that you are obliged to look at closely which may have been at the back of your mind. You have to look at communication documents like opening hours, fee scales, and cross infection control. Staff need to have new conversations between themselves and with the patients. Good Practice picks up on things you could do better or things that you do well but you are taking for granted. Doing the course points you in the right direction to fix all these things.

Everyone at the clinic has a personalised development plan. This means everyone has a direction, an increased sense of job satisfaction and improved self-worth. The course is structured as opposed to ad-hoc, making it more logical to follow and implement. It was hard work but once we got into the rhythm of doing it, it was a very worthwhile journey.

The positive changes we have seen

The training that we used to do in a less structured way has become much more efficient and standardised with templates. There are also resources available to Expert members for all the situations that we could come across at work. Now, seven dental practices on the high street in Gibraltar follow Good Practice and they all operate at a high standard. My expectation is that we will see more positive changes in the long term, including those practices that have not yet joined the Good Practice Scheme doing so.

We had an open-air presentation event in July for the seven clinics that completed the Association’s Good Practice course. Gibraltar’s Minister for Health and Director for Public Health were in attendance. It was covered in Gibraltar’s press, television, radio and online media channels with great exposure and lasting word of mouth effect. It was a great event publicising the improved standards that we have achieved.

The importance of Good Practice accreditation

Gibraltar deserves high standards from its dental sector. We have taken responsibility for our profession as part of our clinical governance by voluntarily entering the Good Practice Scheme. We have to give dental team members, the public, and the state the confidence that practices are not just seen to be working to the best of their abilities but are actually doing so. Courses like this put the profession in a great light and make it more transparent.

Good Practice accreditation is a stamp of quality for everyone to relate to. It gets you and your team to put the work in place for your practice to run really well. Now people can look for the GDA’s Good Practice Scheme kitemark displayed at participating clinics and on their websites to differentiate them from other clinics.