More details emerge on Foundation Training places
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- Published: Friday, 28 September 2012 07:36
- Written by News Editor
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Answering a series of questions in the House of Commons from dentist MP Sir Paul Beresford on Sept 14, Minister Dr Poulter said that 35 UK graduates had not been allocated on Dental Foundation Training this year. He also said that there had 951 placements, 41 of which are dental graduates from overseas, around half of whom came from the Republic of Ireland. The British Dental Association has issued a press statement condemning the ‘fiasco’. |
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The exchange of questions and answers:
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many graduates from UK dental schools have not been allocated a place on the Dental Foundation Training Programme for 2012-13.
Dr Poulter: 35 dental graduates from dental schools in England and Wales were unsuccessful in obtaining a dental foundation training (DFT1) place out of an overall total of 1,145 eligible applicants. The Postgraduate Dental Deans are seeking to make arrangements whereby these dentists can maintain their skills pending the 2013 DFT1 recruitment exercise, in which some training places will be available from February 2013.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the relative skills, competencies and experience of (a) UK and (b) overseas dental graduates upon their admission to the Dental Foundation Training Programme; and how any such assessment is made.
Dr Poulter: In 2011-12 the Department commissioned the London postgraduate dental deanery to run the first national recruitment programme to dental foundation places. We are aware that 41 overseas dentists were successful at interview involving a test of communication and clinical skills and management and leadership skills. The individual trainers of foundation dentists will tailor the training they provide to meet the needs of individual trainees. Trainers receive advice from directors of foundation training programmes working under the direction of postgraduate dental deans.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost to the public purse is of training each graduate of a UK dental school.
Dr Poulter: The information available to the Department is for university dental schools in England. We estimate that the cost of training undergraduates for the five year Bachelor of Dental Surgery course is about £200,000, of which students, who are not eligible for support under the arrangements to help low income families, can be expected to contribute £45,000.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what number and proportion of places on the Dental Foundation Training Programme for 2012-13 have been allocated to dental graduates from overseas; and from which schools such students have graduated.
Dr Poulter: There are 951 placements, 41 of which are dental graduates from overseas. This is 4.3% of the total number of placements.
The breakdown can be found in the following table:
|
Country |
Dental school |
Numbers |
|
Ireland |
Dublin Dental University Hospital, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland |
16 |
|
Ireland |
Cork University Dental School and Hospital |
7 |
|
Brazil |
Federal University of Minas Gerais |
1 |
|
Czech Republic |
Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove |
7 |
|
Czech Republic |
Masaryk University |
1 |
|
Hungary |
University of Debrecen, Medical and Health Science Centre |
7 |
|
India |
Saurashtra University, Gujarat, India |
1 |
|
Trinidad and Tobago |
University of the West Indies |
1 |
The BDA’s press statement:
The British Dental Association (BDA) has condemned news that 35 newly-qualified dentists from UK institutions have not been allocated Dental Foundation Training (DFT) places this year. This will prevent them from providing care to NHS patients, because completion of DFT is a prerequisite for working in the NHS.
The cost to the public purse of training each of the 35 is likely to have been in the region of £155,000, meaning that almost £5.5million of taxpayers’ money has been spent on training them.
Confirmation of the number of individuals who have not been allocated training places and the cost to the public purse of their training came in written Parliamentary Answers on 14 September.
Dr Judith Husband, Chair of Ethics, Education and the Dental Team at the BDA, said:
“Taxpayers will be shocked to learn that they contributed such a significant sum of money to training dentists who have successfully qualified but will now be denied the opportunity to complete the training they need to work in the NHS. This situation is particularly disappointing given the challenging circumstances confronting public finances and the difficulties patients in some areas still face accessing NHS dental care.
“The situation also has a tragic personal aspect to it. These 35 individuals, who have worked hard to gain their dental qualification, will have taken on significant amounts of debt in order to complete their studies. Rejection by the NHS will be a serious blow.
“Government must look urgently at this fiasco and resolve it by making alternative arrangements for the unplaced graduates to undertake Dental Foundation Training. It must also act to ensure that future cohorts of newly-qualified dentists are never confronted with such a situation.”
Student debt one of the issues raised by the BDA’s February 2012 Student Futures paper.
re: Dr Sharma
Hi Dr Sharma, I would just like to point out that as far as I'm aware us 35 UK graduates are not blaming EEA graduates for 'stealing our jobs' in a Daily Mail fashion. The numbers were predicted, and the prediction ignored by those running the process.Frankly, the fact I was unable to secure a placement is source of great embarrassment to myself, I have attempted to discover where I went wrong with my interview, and sought self-improvement. I then passed my finals with a very good mark to show just what I am capable of.
Contrary to your suggestion, I have never once blamed an EEA graduate for my predicament, rather only myself, and a process which ignored the predictions of a massive shortfall of places. I'm sorry if you feel victimised by this article, but please direct your anger away from people in my position, it is not us you need to be angry at.
Dr Sharma
I am one of the few who also did not manage to secure a place in the national recruitment 2012. I am also one of those students who has graduated within the EEA. i find us few overseas students are being victimized by the DoH and others involved in the national recuritment, claiming that we are the main reason why so many UK graduates were unsucessful in the VT scheme. Like it has been mentioned, we are but a tiny percentage of whom applied. Even if the overseas students had not applied, the recruitment was still over subscribed. 1145 candidates were invited for interview in November 2011. Minus the overseas students (41), that means that there were a total of 1104 UK graduates fighting for 926 spaces...I understand the frustration from a UK graduates perspective that an overseas student has occupied a VT place even if they may be VT exempt. But as i am experiencing, and as are my fellow graduates, we are constantly been rejected for associate positions as we have NO post graduate experience (ie. DF1 training). So: we are VT exempt, none wants to employ a graduated with out experience, we are blamed for the over subscription of the DF1 scheme, what are we supposed to do?
i find it very frustrating that we are looked upon in such a bad light. At least appreciate the fact we were determined enough to go overseas to purse our degree!
My personal opinion regarding the few UK graduates who did not mange to fix a place for the VT Scheme 2012, they should be embarrassed the fact they were unsuccessful. They had been given extra classes what to expect during the interviews, extra help and support, reading material and so forth, we have nothing...
Just some comments...
Just some comments about this article;I am one of the 35 dental graduates who has been left in the unfortunate position of being unable to find work following graduation.
Firstly, I have contacted my local postgraduate Dental Dean to see if there are any arrangements being made to help me maintain my skills while I'm looking to complete my training, as far as I'm aware there are no arrangements in place as yet, but I'm hoping there will be something provided soon. I'd be willing to pay for occasional access to a clinical skills lab somewhere, the last time I've held a handpiece was in May, so I'm worried about the effect it could have on my clinical skills that the earliest I'll be back in a dental environment will be February.
Secondly, the cost to the taxpayer for training the 35 dental students calculated here is erroneous as the student contribution figure of £45,000 is incorrect. This figure is based on current tuition fees of £9,000 per annum, whereas in actual fact, the total contribution for a student trained in the last five years was around £16,000 based on the tuition fees charged before the cap was lifted. Meaning that rather than almost £5.5million of taxpayers’ money being spent on training them, the actual figure is closer to £6.5million.
I wholeheartedly agree with the words of Dr Judith Husband here, and sincerely hope this situation does not occur in the future. I find myself unable to put my hard-earned skills to any use, and having promised myself that I wouldn't settle for an unsought career, signing on to jobseekers allowance every two weeks is a frustrating situation I had hoped the hard work I had put into my education would avoid.
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