Patients will benefit from plans to boost the dentistry workforce
by cutting red tape and making it quicker and easier for dentists
from overseas to work in the UK.
Under current rules, highly-skilled dentists who qualified
overseas and are attempting to register to practise in the UK are
required to pass exams that can take years to complete – meaning
lengthy delays in them being able to provide dental care.
The government’s proposals - which are the subject of a public
consultation being launched today (Friday) - mean the General
Dental Council (GDC), which regulates dentists working in the UK,
would be given new legal powers to provisionally register
dentists with overseas qualifications. This would speed up the
process and encourage more dentists trained abroad to come to the
UK as part of a long-term plan to improve access to dentistry
services.
Around 30 per cent of all dentists on the GDC register qualified
outside of the UK, and in 2022, 46 per cent of new additions to
the register were trained overseas. The government’s proposals
would mean that overseas-qualified dentists would be able to
start practising in the UK as quickly as possible.
Primary Care Minister said:
Our dental recovery plan will create millions more dental
appointments, improve access for patients and ease pressure on
the sector. Our hard-working dentists deserve our gratitude and
this is the start of our plan to put the sector on a sustainable
footing.
Strengthening the workforce is key to our ambitions and our
proposals would abolish red tape that currently prevents fully
qualified overseas dentists from working in this country, while
ensuring the highest standards of care and patient safety.
We have a long term plan to make access to NHS dental care
faster, simpler and fairer for all, and I want to make sure we
hear views from across the sector as we drive this forward.
The GDC would be given autonomy in setting the terms for
provisional registrations to ensure the highest levels of patient
safety and quality of care are maintained. Those on the
provisional register will be able to work in the UK, but only
under the supervision of a fully GDC-registered dentist.
The consultation forms part of the government and NHS’s wider
dental recovery plan, which aims to significantly improve access
to dental care across the country. It goes alongside work as part
of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan to increase training places
in the UK for dental professionals by 2032, with the number of
dentist places increasing by 40% to 1,100.
Other measures in the plan include dentists being offered
additional payments for taking on new NHS patients and ‘golden
hellos’ worth £20,000 over three years for those willing to go
and work in underserved areas. These and other measures are
expected to create an additional 2.5million dental appointments.
Jason Wong, Interim Chief Dental Officer for England, said:
Improving access to dental appointments for patients is a
priority for the NHS, and increasing the number of dentists
available would make it easier for patients to get the dental
care they need.
The NHS dental recovery plan represents an important milestone
for dental services across the country – opening up more
appointments for patients – and these proposals could be another
vital step towards transforming NHS dental services to ensure
faster access for patients.
Stefan Czerniawski, Executive Director, Strategy, General Dental
Council, said:
We very much welcome the government’s openness to new ideas for
ways of streamlining international registration.
Provisional registration is an exciting opportunity that will
require commitment and collaboration from across dentistry on the
design and delivery of the new approach.
We need to move at pace, but we need to take the time to get this
right - and we will work with stakeholders across the dental
sector and four nations to do so.
Following conclusion of the three-month consultation, responses
will be analysed and fed into a final report. They will also be
used to finalise the legislation that is planned to be laid
before Parliament for MPs to debate.
The public consultation is published here
