Sir, in a move to provide efficient, effective and supportive investigations into the conducts of doctors whilst remaining sensitive and compassionate, the General Medical Council (GMC) has now committed to publish annual data of doctors who have taken their own lives whilst under investigation. It states the following:

'We do collect data on suicides of doctors under investigation [and] use this data to ensure that, when a doctor dies by suicide during an investigation, we conduct a review of our interaction with the doctor to ensure we understand and reflect on the impact of our investigation'.1

This transparency and reflection on the extreme distress that such investigations can cause to doctors is of course very welcome and demonstrates that the GMC is not complacent where the health and wellbeing of doctors are concerned.

Dentists and dental care professionals (DCPs) too are subject to a complaints process and GDC investigations into their fitness to practise. While the GDC publish annual reports on the numbers of fitness to practise investigations,2 these reports offer little by way of an appreciation of how a GDC investigation may adversely impact on the personal and professional lives of GDC registrants. This is a topic of particular interest to us as we are currently undertaking research into 'The effect of patient complaints on the wellbeing of the orthodontic workforce in the UK'. Though at an early stage, the research has already identified knowledge gaps in this regard in UK dental literature.

A Freedom of Information request asking for data on dentists and DCPs who have taken their own lives whilst under investigation by the GDC was recently rejected. This request was made by one of the authors of this letter (FA). In their response, the GDC stated:

'We agree that there is a public interest in knowing the number of registrants who have taken their life whilst being investigated for a fitness to practise concern by the General Dental Council, and we do carry out procedures to ensure they receive sufficient support. However, we do not have the resource to extract the requested information accurately'.3

It is disappointing that the GDC currently do not have the resource to undertake this level of analysis of its fitness to practise data. We take this opportunity to call upon the GDC to redirect resource into this worthy and important endeavour. Suicide statistics are an indicator of mental health and failing to collect and report on suicide rates of those under GDC investigation means that the profession is not recognising or supporting its members at a time when they are at risk of stress and poor mental health.