BDA hits out over Dental Foundation Training ‘fiasco’

The British Dental Association (BDA) has reacted angrily over the failure of planning that has left a number of newly-qualified dentists without access to training.

Figures disclosed in a recent House of Commons debate have revealed that 35 dentists who recently qualified from UK institutions have not been allocated Dental Foundation Training (DFT) places this year.

This will prevent them from providing care to NHS patients, wasting around 5.5 million pounds of public money that has cumulatively been spent on training them thus far, while forcing them to go deeper into debt in order to complete their studies.

The BDA has therefore demanded that action be taken to ensure a repeat of this situation cannot occur.

Dr Judith Husband, chair of ethics, education and the dental team at the BDA, said: "The government must look urgently at this fiasco and resolve it by making alternative arrangements for the unplaced graduates to undertake Dental Foundation Training."

In August, the organisation highlighted data from the NHS Information Centre showing that dentists in England and Wales are earning significantly less and paying more in essential costs and expenses than was the case three years ago.