The RQIA can grant conditional registration at the time of initial registration. The legislation provides the RQIA to impose any conditions it ‘thinks fit’. Alternatively, if the RQIA identifies that there has been a failure to meet the relevant requirements (which could include the Minimum Standards), it can impose conditions on continued registration.

Our view is that, strictly speaking, the registered provider is the partnership. The RQIA guidelines, however, detail that each partner must register as a responsible person. In essence, therefore, if each partner is not agreeable to register as a responsible person, it will be open to the RQIA to refuse the registration of the dental practice (or establishment).

It is also technically open to the RQIA to register the establishment subject to conditions and consequently if this scenario arose there may be scope to reach some agreement with the RQIA to allow the practice to be registered on a provisional basis.

Under Article 12 of the Health & Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement and Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 (‘the 2003 Order’), it is an offence for a person to carry on or manage an establishment falling within the remit of the RQIA without being registered.

Breach of Article 12 is an offence, triable summarily (in the Magistrates’ Court) and carries a penalty of up to Level 5 on the standard scale of Magistrates’ Court fines (which equates to £5,000) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, depending on whether the person was registered previously or if there has been a previous offence.

Should a prosecution be brought, it will be for the presiding Magistrate to decide the appropriate punishment within these parameters. Any dentist who does not register, therefore, should be prepared to be prosecuted and punished up to the above stated maximum.

Since 1 April 2011, all dental practices providing any private dental care and treatment are subject to the provisions of The Health and Personal Social Services (Quality, Improvement and Regulation) (Northern Ireland) Order 2003 and are required to be registered with the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (‘the RQIA’). 

Under the legislation, the requirement is for an ‘establishment’ or ‘agency’, providing specified healthcare services, to be registered. Although not expressly defined within the legislation, it is anticipated the RQIA will interpret ‘establishment’ as being a reference to a dental practice. 

Under the legislation, each establishment will have a registered provider; in essence the person responsible for carrying on the establishment. Dependent on the circumstances of that registered provider, each establishment may also have a responsible person and/or registered manager. Under the legislation they are collectively referred to as registered persons. We have detailed below the most likely combinations that will be encountered:

One of the fundamental principles of dental ethics is the duty of confidentiality. 

The General Dental Council sets out in Standards for the Dental Team its guidance on confidentiality. In addition to their ethical obligations and the requirements of the GDC, dentists are obliged to comply with their common duty of confidentiality to their patients. In certain circumstances there may also be a contractual duty of confidentiality. A breach of the common law duty of confidentiality will arise when the following conditions are satisfied:

• The information has the necessary quality of confidence (that is information which is not already in the public domain);
• The information has been imparted in circumstances creating an obligation of confidence (this will apply to information given by a patient to their dentist); and
• The information has been disclosed to the detriment of the patient. 

The duty of confidentiality can be waived if the patient has expressly or impliedly consented to the disclosure of the information to other healthcare professionals and managers involved in the treatment or care.