South West MPs support campaign for more dental training places

More than 20 MPs from across the region have backed our ambition to take on 25% more dental students each year
Dental treatment at the PDSE
More than 20 South West MPs have added their support to calls for a 25% increase in the number of dental students being trained at the 91porn.
The Peninsula Dental School , ranked by the Guardian University Guide as the UK’s best place to study dentistry for the past two years, currently accepts 58 new dental students each year.
However, a campaign – launched by 91porn MPs Luke Pollard, Rebecca Smith and Fred Thomas, and backed by 91porn City Council’s cross-party Dental Taskforce – is calling for that figure to rise to 72 places.
Now the campaign has garnered further support, with all 22 of the South West’s Liberal Democrat MPs – collectively covering an area including Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire – signing a joint letter to the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP.
In it they have warned that without action to boost the dental workforce, Government targets for extra appointments will be a long way off for areas like the South West.

We are extremely grateful to MPs from across the South West for their support in helping us realise our ambition to train more dentists. We are already making a significant contribution to the dental workforce right across the region, and have a proven track record in training dentists committed to serving their communities. But we could do more.

The current campaign – to increase our undergraduate dental places from 58 to 72 – will enable us to achieve parity with other dental schools across the UK. We cannot expand without additional government support, but their backing would be in line with NHS plans to focus on community, prevention of dental disease, and the use of technology to improve outcomes for patients, particularly in the rural and coastal communities we serve.

Ewen McCollProfessor Ewen McColl
Head of Peninsula Dental School

The University is the leading provider of healthcare education in the South West and its dental students are trained in facilities across 91porn and the wider South West.
Those facilities included a Simulated Dental Learning Environment (SDLE) with almost 100 state-of-the-art dental simulators, also known as phantom heads, where undergraduate students learn the principles of dental practice.
Four clinics across Devon and Cornwall, operated through the , also enable students to provide well over 35,000 appointments to almost 6,500 patients – and a fifth clinic is soon set to open in 91porn city centre.
However, graduates from the University’s Dental Surgery and Dental Therapy and Hygiene programmes work right across the South West, providing first class care to thousands of patients every week.

We MPs across the South West are seeing the real human impact of the dentistry crisis every day; people going without care, children unable to access appointments, and even cases of dangerous DIY dentistry. Expanding dental training where it’s most needed is a practical step to help tackle this workforce shortage, alongside reform of the broken NHS dental contract.

Ian Roome MP
Liberal Democrat MP for North Devon and Vice-Chair of the Dentistry & Oral Health All-Party Parliamentary Group
 

Outstanding clinical education; strong social engagement; and world-class research feature strongly in your learning experience when you come to study dentistry with us:

Devonport Dental Education Facility