Sir, I have read with interest the recent correspondence relating to the increasing legislative requirements with which all GDPs are required to comply.

It would seem that the main problem for our profession, in our drive for increasing levels of quality assurance, is the increasing amount of time involved in providing the correct information to the relevant authority.

Having asked a number of well informed colleagues about the cumulative total of man-hours required to be fully compliant in all areas of providing dental care, no one seems to be in a position to say how much time is required.

Our problem could become that as the demands of all forms of quality assurance continue to increase, this may cause a significant reduction on the time available to provide treatment for our patients.

At present this trend seems to be largely unmonitored.

Under the circumstances, would it be unreasonable for the profession's representatives to insist all the relevant authorities state clearly in their guidance notes the amount of time expected for the completion of each assessment after first piloting the exercise?

With this information to hand we can then predict the point at which quality assurance assessments could become detrimental to the availability of patient care.

The alternative could be an increase in the number of stressed and disaffected individuals whose premature departure would remove from the profession many man-years of valuable experience to the detriment of the GDS.