 Ministers want to train more dentists in Scotland |
The chief dental officer is to report to ministers after "constructive" talks with a dental school offering to pay students to delay training. Ray Watkins met staff at Dundee University, which has offered bursaries to those who wait a year before taking up places on the oversubscribed course.
The British Dental Association said ministers needed to provide facilities to train more dental students.
The Scottish Executive said it was focussed on meeting that demand.
There have been concerns about a lack on NHS dentists in Scotland in recent years, with lengthy queues being seen outside new surgeries.
The executive moved to tackle the problem by announcing a �150m funding package to provide an extra 200 dentists by 2008.
The number of applications to attend the Dundee school rose by 40% this year and the number of acceptances increased by more than 30%.
As a result, it offered a bursary package to prospective students if they were willing to defer for one year "to ease the inevitable crowding of facilities".
After meeting the dental school's dean, Professor Bill Saunders, Mr Watkins said: "Last week the deputy health minister highlighted the fact that our priority is not just on getting more students through our dental schools, but on making sure that we get more dentists committed to the NHS at the end of their training.
"Today I have had a very constructive meeting to discuss the issues surrounding the over-subscription to the school's dental course.
"I shall now feedback on what I have heard at this meeting to ministers and they will respond fully in due course."
Prof Saunders said: "We had a positive meeting with the chief dental officer this morning and we were happy to have the opportunity to discuss some of the issues raised by the enlarged enrolment this year."
Earlier he said there had been "positive discussions" with the executive, which supported the efforts to accommodate the increased numbers of students.
'Lack of funding'
However, Scottish National Party MSP Richard Lochhead said the government's credibility was "in tatters".
"It beggars belief that government ministers are on the one hand boasting about record investment in dentistry when dental schools are being forced to turn away students due to a lack of funding," he said.
Dr Andrew Lamb, national director of the British Dental Association in Scotland, said the situation highlighted something which had been known for some time.
"There are a large number of ably-qualified school leavers wanting to study dentistry in Scotland but an insufficient number of places for them to undertake those studies," he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme.
He said Dundee had increased the spaces available, but was still at full capacity.
"The facilities have to be provided now to train these dental students," he said.
"They have to be provided very quickly and we need to get the clinical academic staff trained and brought in in sufficient numbers to allow these students to be trained appropriately."
Deputy Health Minister Lewis Macdonald agreed that the facilities needed to be in place to train the number of dentists that the executive wanted to see over the next few years.
Provide a service
"There is an issue there that needs to be addressed and we are very much focussed on that," he said.
"The key thing for us is not just getting more dentists but getting more of the dentists we train to stay in the NHS.
"It is all very well to train dentists, but we need them to provide a service to the public."
He said the executive's funding aimed to increase the number of students and provide them with incentives to remain in the NHS rather than going private.
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I shall now feedback on what I have heard at this meeting to ministers and they will respond fully in due course
