the ADG is urging the General Dental Council (GDC) to speed up the approval of qualified dentists through the overseas registration exam (ORE).
There are 2,000 overseas dentists waiting to take the ORE. Neil Carmichael, chair of the ADG, explained, “That’s 2,000 dentists that could be practising at a time when the UK dentistry is crying out for greater resources.”
He continued, “The government needs to use every tool at its disposal to encourage the GDC to make it easier for dentists to practice in the UK by increasing the number of places on the ORE and sitting them more frequently.
“A net increase of just 1,000 dentists could deliver access to NHS primary dental care for up to 750,000 people. This will alleviate the pressure on health services and ensure everyone in the UK has access to quality dental care.”
While the ADG fully supports the NHS long-term workforce plan to increase UK training of dentists, this will only see significant increases in qualified dentists from mid-2030. By that time, many NHS dental practices will be closed.
Contract reform, backed by The Mirror, will also increase the number of patients being seen but needs to be supplemented by a fast increase in the number of dentists practising, which can only be urgently unlocked by reform to the ORE.
A GDC spokesperson said, “We agree with the ADG that improvements are needed in the way the ORE works – and we are making them.
“As they well know, the legislative changes last year are still not fully in effect, but despite that, we have already significantly increased the capacity of both parts of the ORE. The GDC has tripled the capacity of three Part One sittings from August 2023 (creating a total of 1,800 places over the three sittings) and organised an additional sitting for Part Two in 2024 (creating an additional 144 places). We will soon be launching the procurement process for a new provider for Part Two, which will give us greater flexibility to match the number of places available to the number of candidates.
“But we also want to look beyond the ORE, at other ways which provide internationally qualified dental professionals with routes to registration in the UK – without compromising on the standards which need to be reached. We look to the government to make the further legislative changes which would make that possible. We are keen to work with others to make that a reality, including with the government on any further legislative changes which may be necessary.”