Aleksandra Krystyna Smolka
Introduction
Aleksandra Krystyna Smolka is a dentist who qualified at Lek Stom Katowice in 1995. In October 2021 a Professional Conduct Committee of the General Dental Council erased her from the dentists register after finding that, for the better part of a year, she refused to cooperate with a GDC investigation into her fitness to practise by declining to provide a medical reference from her GP and consent to a health assessment. She did not attend the hearing and was not represented; the committee proceeded in her absence and directed erasure with an immediate suspension .
Background Information
The case did not concern Smolka’s clinical work but her conduct toward her regulator. In January 2020 the GDC wrote to her saying concerns had been raised about her health and asking for information to help it assess those concerns, including a medical reference and her consent to undergo an assessment. Over the following year the council repeated the request by letter and email, extended deadlines, and explained the voluntary removal process when she asked instead to be struck from the register. Her previous fitness to practise history weighed heavily: a 2018 Professional Conduct Committee had suspended her over clinical matters, and in December 2020 a reviewing committee found a pattern of failing to engage and extended that suspension by twelve months .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The charge alleged that from 10 February 2020 to 7 January 2021 she “failed to fully cooperate with an investigation conducted by the GDC into your fitness to practise”, in that she did not provide a medical reference from her GP or consent to undergo a health assessment when asked. The committee found the charge proved in its entirety after tracing the full correspondence timeline: the original request of 27 January 2020, a follow-up letter in March 2020 whose email attachments were downloaded, and repeated attempts through October 2020 that drew no substantive response. Smolka replied on several occasions, but only to demand that her name be deleted. In April 2020 she invoked a supposed “right to be deleted”, in July 2020 she demanded removal and said she would send the GDC no documents and pay no fees, and her one explanation for the missing medical information was that her health was fine. Her voluntary-removal declaration was rejected because it was not witnessed by a lawyer, and she never completed the process .
The committee found the non-engagement breached Standard 9.4 of the Standards for the Dental Team, which requires registrants to cooperate with any relevant inquiry and respond fully to GDC correspondence. It concluded the breach was serious, that her disregard for the regulator’s authority “would be regarded as deplorable by her fellow professionals”, and that the behaviour was bound up with character rather than a one-off lapse. With no engagement at all across three separate sets of proceedings, the committee found no evidence of insight or remediation and held that the risk of repetition could not be called unlikely .
Public Reaction and Consequences
Because the hearing was conducted in Smolka’s absence, there was no contested defence and no public statement from her beyond the correspondence quoted in the determination. The GDC’s case presenter argued that her history and complete lack of insight made suspension the realistic starting point but that a further period of suspension would serve no purpose; the committee agreed that conditions were unworkable in a non-clinical case, that suspension had already failed to change her behaviour, and that anything short of erasure would undermine public confidence. The sanction stage closed with the committee’s conclusion that her “misconduct is fundamentally incompatible with her remaining on the Register” .
Current Status
Smolka was erased from the dentists register, with an immediate suspension order covering the 28-day appeal window so that she could not practise in the interim. The committee noted she had said she did not intend to return to the UK to work as a dentist, but observed that without a restriction on her registration she could change her mind at any point — one of the reasons it gave for refusing a lesser sanction. Unless she appealed, her name was to be erased 28 days after service of the determination. MedicWatch records the erasure decision among the dentists struck off in 2021 .
Impact on Their Career/Life
Erasure ends Smolka’s ability to practise as a dentist in the United Kingdom, and the finding of a sustained, wilful disregard for the regulatory system is the kind that makes any future restoration application close to hopeless. The committee acknowledged the order could cause her financial hardship but ruled that her interests were outweighed by the need to protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession. The case also records how an earlier suspension, imposed for clinical failings, hardened into erasure once the regulator concluded she would simply never engage .