Reforms To Facilitate Overseas Dentist Employment To Be Pushed Through Parliament This Week
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- Published: Monday, 05 September 2022 08:10
- Written by Chris Tapper
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The newspaper says “The move is part of a drive by the Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, to increase overseas recruitment to help plug workforce gaps in health and social care,” and will include general nursing staff.
The Guardian reported “Barclay believes thousands of extra health professionals will come as a result of new rules making it easier for medical regulators to register those who have qualified abroad.”
“If the change proves successful it will help pave the way for more nurses and dentists coming to work in Britain from countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Kenya, the Philippines and Malaysia.”
Health policy editor Denis Campbell reported that the newspaper has seen a memo from the Department of Health and Social Care which shows that it will lay a statutory instrument in the House of Commons on 5th September, which will enable the General Dental Council and The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to approve the arrival of more foreign-trained staff.
“The secondary legislation, which does not require MPs to pass it, will be called the Dentists, Dental Care Professionals, Nurses, Nursing Associates and Midwives (International Registrations) Order 2022,” Mr Campbell wrote.
“It makes clear that the DHSC intends to simplify what it regards as unnecessarily cumbersome procedures that restrict overseas staff coming to work in the NHS.
It says that “aspects of the current legislative requirements for registering international dentists make it difficult and time-consuming for the General Dental Council (GDC) to make changes to its registration.”
The memo adds that the order “would provide the GDC with greater flexibility to make changes to its Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) process and to explore other registration routes for international applicants, for example, recognition of programmes of education delivered outside the UK on a unilateral basis.”
But the GDC’s own website shows that in April 2022, there was a 41% failure rate in Part 2 of the ORE in April 2022, though this was a marked improvement from January, when 65% failed Part 2, which includes a direct practical examination of clinical skills.
In the past few months, GDPUK revealed that the GDC has registered overseas dentists who failed the ORE, as dental therapists.
The Guardian quoted a DHSC source as saying “These legal changes will free up the regulators to carry out thousands more checks each year on dentists and nurses from overseas, giving the NHS much-needed capacity. The NHS has always called on overseas staff when in need.”
“The changes would not lead to a glut of less-qualified staff arriving, the source said. ‘We’re making sure we recruit ethically and without weakening standards, and these extra checks will help deliver that. Patients should be reassured that we will bring in extra staff able to deliver care to the same high standards as the staff we have already.’”
The Guardian reported “The British Dental Association said government action to enable a bigger supply of dental staff from overseas was welcome but the new push would not end the growing shortage of NHS dentists, which has left millions of patients facing serious difficulty accessing care.”
“Action here is long overdue, but will not address the scale of the crisis facing this service,” said Dr Eddie Crouch, the BDA’s chair.
“NHS dentistry is haemorrhaging talent by the day because of the dysfunctional system it’s built on. Ministers need to do more than try to fill a leaky bucket. They need to actually fix it.”
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