Fast Track for EU Dentists Gets Reprieve
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- Published: Wednesday, 05 July 2023 07:49
- Written by Peter Ingle
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The new NHS England workforce plan contains a generous assortment of initiatives to try and increase numbers across healthcare. Most are not as controversial as the proposed compulsory NHS service for new dental graduates.
Many, like the huge increase in student numbers, may prove challenging to deliver, and even if the government or its successor, meets these ambitious targets it will take a few years for the public to see any effect.
There has been a good deal made of the plan reducing the percentage of international recruits working in the NHS. Despite this, in the short and medium term they will be needed in very large numbers, until graduates of the new and expanded UK training schemes come on stream.
In May the GDC was unusually responsive to criticism, and announced that it would be trebling the number of places on its Overseas Registration Exam (ORE). This would remove a major bottleneck, and speed up the torturous delays in getting these graduates onto the register. Despite this, a further serious pinch point was approaching as the automatic acceptance of EU dentists’ qualifications was due to end. This would have then pushed them into the ORE process.
With about 17% of dentists on the UK register having European qualifications, and making up 37% of all dentists who joined the register in 2022, this would have overwhelmed even the expanded ORE scheme. So it is convenient that the day before the workforce plan was published that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced standstill provisions which will allow fast track registration for those holding European qualifications, to continue for an extra five years.
Welcoming the announcement, the GDC pointed out that legislative reforms giving them the powers to amend rules for the registration of dental professionals qualifying outside the UK were provided just three months ago. The time provided by the extension of standstill arrangements should give the GDC a chance to properly prepare modernisation and improvements to its regulatory processes, before additional capacity for the assessment of European qualifications is needed.
With continued recognition of European dentists’ diplomas, existing processes for these dentists joining the UK register remain, including checks on language, health and character. An increasing number of UK students are leaving the UK to study dentistry in Europe, and they now have some reassurance that their qualification will be recognised here when they return.
Stefan Czerniawski, GDC Executive Director, Strategy, said:
“We are pleased that the Government has agreed with our arguments that the current arrangements for recognising European dental qualifications should continue for the time being. Although in the longer term we believe there is a strong argument for a single approach to international registration, now is not the time to disrupt the flow of new entrants to the UK dental workforce.”
With the GDC facing unwelcome attention over its performance, it is fortunate that on this occasion they can assist the DHSC in its hour of need.
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