Dental students sign up for NHS 'golden handcuffs' deal

Avatar · Dental students sign up for NHS 'golden handcuffs' deal

"MORE than 250 dental students have signed a "golden handcuffs" deal with the NHS in return for £4,000-a-year bursaries.

Thousands of Scots currently struggle to find an NHS dentist who will take them on to their list, forcing them to take more expensive private treatment.

In an attempt to increase the number of NHS dentists, the Executive announced a bursary scheme offering trainees cash in return for a commitment to the NHS after they graduate.

Figures seen by The Scotsman show that 252 students have already applied for the bursary since September. It is thought that even more will follow and take up the bursaries, many in the hope of reducing debts running to more than £10,000 by the time they finish their course.

The bursary is available to students from the second year of their course onwards.

Those who take it for just one year will commit themselves to two years working in the NHS. Those who take it for two years must do NHS work for three years, students taking three grants must work for four years and those who take the full £16,000 over four years must commit to five years in the health service.

There are currently 1,936 NHS dentists working in Scotland, up from 1,866 in 2002.

The Executive's Dental Action Plan last year pledged to increase the dentists working in the NHS by at least 200 by 2008, but the British Dental Association (BDA) believes 400 more are needed.

Lewis Macdonald, the deputy health minister, said it was "really encouraging" that students were showing such enthusiasm for the bursary scheme just weeks after it was announced.

"Patients across Scotland will begin to reap the benefits of this scheme next year, when the first of the hundreds of dental graduates start working in the NHS."

"We want patients, wherever they live in Scotland, to be able to access NHS dentists, and this is one way of ensuring this happens," he said.

"This scheme is a key part of the range of measures we have brought in to make NHS dentistry a more attractive option."

But the BDA pointed out that it would be several years before students taking the bursary near the start of their training would start to contribute to the NHS. Andrew Lamb, the BDA director for Scotland, said: "The undergraduates who have applied for the bursary will need to have looked very carefully at what the five-year commitment actually entails, so that their future career opportunities are not compromised.

"The effectiveness of the scheme will also need to be monitored and evaluated in due course. Since some of the students who have applied for the bursary will only be in the second year of their five-year course, it will be some time before that can happen."

Mr Lamb said that while it was good that longer-term issues were being addressed, the Executive also needed to tackle problems facing patients and dentists now.

"The Scottish Executive should be introducing measures that encourage dentists who are currently committed to the NHS to continue to be so," he said.

Margaret Watt, who chairs the Scottish Patients' Association, said access to NHS dentistry in many parts of Scotland was "shocking" and needed to be addressed urgently. But she questioned whether the bursary scheme was the answer.

"Why are we paying them to stay in the NHS? It is just a bribe. The Executive needs to get more dentists to stay in the NHS, but they should be thinking of other ways to do it," she said.
Patients face struggle for health service treatment

FINDING an NHS dentist in Scotland is not always easy, as thousands of patients already know, writes Lyndsay Moss.

Figures released in September revealed that a third of Scottish children were not registered with an NHS dentist, despite a £45 million drive by the Scottish Executive to improve services and increase access. Less than 50 per cent of adults in Scotland are registered with an NHS dentist.

Figures show that by the time they are five, over 56 per cent of Scottish children have dental disease. Critics fear that efforts to improve the nation's dental health will fail without more NHS dentists.

The falling numbers have been blamed on NHS dentists moving patients into private treatment because the fees and incentives package from the NHS is not good enough.

The Executive says it has introduced incentives to keep dentists working in the NHS.
'I WANTED TO WORK IN THE NHS'

Lewis Barnes expects to leave dental school in Dundee with debts of £10,000.

So the offer of £4,000 to help him through his final year was hard to refuse.

In return he will commit himself to two years working for the NHS, rather than going into more lucrative private practice.

"I think it is a very good scheme," the 21-year-old said.

"Patients find it very hard to find an NHS dentist and these bursaries will mean less students turn their back on the NHS and do more private work."

Lewis said that dental students usually left with debts of between £10,000 and £15,000 after their five-year course.

"If you leave with so much debt, private practice is very tempting because the pay is higher, but you can also earn good money with a stable career in the NHS.

"Having seen the problems patients have finding a dentist I wanted to work in the NHS and this bursary will make that easier."

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1633972006

Finally an idea based on common sense - I for one will be glad to be able to go the dentist in about 4 years time. One has to wonder why it took so long for something to get sorted out to provide NHS dentists.

IF Convenor

Interesting idea, but I fear it will lead to a two-tier system; the NHS will be staffed by inexperienced new graduates and the private sector will be staffed by experienced dentists. I wonder how the new graduates will continue their training if all the experienced dentists are working privately and not interacting with the new kids.

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very valid points but its better than the alternative of having no dentists at all - personally I would have made the NHS contract for 5 or 6 years - which would give enough room for new dentists to be "buddied up" for a decent period. - I expect to see this type of deal extended to people who study medicine, social work and various other degrees/qualifications that we are lacking - or I I atleast hope they have the sense to extend the scheme.

IF Convenor

If they had any sense they'd pay experienced dentists a decent amount of money for NHS work so it'd be worth their while doing it.

Theresa

Despite an increase in number of dentists, is it possible that funding per dentist in relation to the number of patients needing treatment will not be enough? Wales experiences this, but I hope the situation is different for Scotland. Several Welsh dentists in private practice offer a certain amount of service gratis to children.

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I would say thats likely - the last time I heard of a dentist taking on patients there were queues worthy of a Star Wars premier. I can only imagine how gutted people were whent they were told all the places were gone.

IF Convenor

I have to say I've never really understood NHS dentistry. From what I recall the patient has to pay a substantial proportion (80% comes to mind for some reason) of the cost of the procedure anyway so it has never truly been integrated into the NHS in the way other forms of medicine are.

Mind you, it's a very long time since I was registered with an NHS dentist so I could be talking complete rubbish.

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I couldn't say for sure, last time I was at the Dentist I was still in full-time education which I think makes most things free.

Dentistry is a funny thing though, I wouldn't mind paying private if the costs weren't so ridiculously high - I suppose if there were more private dentists the cost would go down.

IF Convenor

Insurance isn't particularly high. A tenner a month covers it.

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Dont you have to pay for any dental work done on top of that though, like fillings, crowns etc?

IF Convenor

Nope. My insurance covers everything done on the premises. Anything like dentures or whatever which are made somewhere else are sold on at cost.

I told a lie though, it was more like twelve pounds a month.

I recently gave up that insurance policy when I got a better medical insurance package from my work which now includes dental cover.

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Ah well, thats really good value for money. Ive heard of some people being charged just for a check up, maybe thats on a different scheme pay as you go type thing.

IF Convenor

The scheme I was in (which also included emergency dental cover anywhere in the world) was run by a sort of north of Scotland dentists' co-operative. It was called Highland Dental something-or-other. It was administered by one of the big name insurance companies and was based in Inverness.