Drummond speaks out about oversupply of dentists
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- Published: Monday, 09 March 2015 07:56
- Written by News Editor
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John Drummond, a former president of the British Dental Association, wrote in a letter to the BDJ that it was ‘desperate; that 10% of recently qualified dentists cannot get jobs. He said that in Scotland are heading for significant unemployment and underemployment and opening a new dental school in Aberdeen ‘has simply compounded the problem.’
John Drummond wrote: ‘Judith Husband, in a recent BDA press release, appears to find it comforting that 90% of dentists completing their VT or Foundation year get jobs. I am afraid I cannot share her optimism about these 'green shoots' and I find it desperate that 10% cannot get jobs. Dentistry is a highly vocational and expensive degree to pursue and there is little else you can do with a BDS degree, other than become a dentist.
‘In Scotland, it is clear we are overproducing dentists significantly. We are heading for significant unemployment and underemployment. Opening a new dental school in Aberdeen has simply compounded the problem. It is time to face the reality that the new school was conceived politically and is protected politically.
‘The new school, with only 20 graduates per year, has never been a success and has sucked human and financial resource from Scotland's two viable dental schools: Dundee and Glasgow. Whilst it will not solve the employment crises we face, it will at least help if the Aberdeen school is closed. How much longer must we pretend that all three schools can continue? Further cuts to Dundee and Glasgow will simply weaken further two excellent schools. It is time now to pull the plug on Aberdeen.’
The letter comes in the wake of an adverse report from the GDC on the Aberdeen school, reported on GDPUK. However John Drummond told a local newspaper that the two were not connected.
He has met with political opposition. The £17m Dental School was opened in 2010 by First Minister Alex Salmond as an ‘innovative solution’ to a chronic shortage of dentists in the north east. Richard Baker MSP (Labour, North East) said: “It is deeply disappointing to hear a call for for the closure of Aberdeen’s Dental School, when what is required is not closure but the right investment from the Scottish Government to make it work.”
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