General Dental Council approval boosts plans for undergraduate dental training
By: Communications
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has been granted approval by the General Dental Council to provide dental training – a positive step towards opening a dental school.
The East of England is a ‘dental desert’ and UEA has been working with MPs to push for the allocation of undergraduate training places.
The approval by the General Dental Council, received earlier this week, means that when Government instructs the Office for Students to allocate undergraduate dental training places, UEA will be able to apply.
Philip Baker, UEA’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, joined senior stakeholders with MPs in Westminster this week to reaffirm the University’s ambitions. He said:
“We are committed to pushing for the opportunity to offer undergraduate dentistry training at UEA to help tackle the shortage of dentists across our region.
“The General Dental Council has now approved our application to be a formal provider of dental training, which is a positive step forward. However we must wait for the Government to instruct the Office for Students to start the allocation of additional undergraduate places.
“We continue to work regularly with all our local MPs to raise the issue and visited Parliament to discuss the matter earlier this week.
“We are putting every measure in place to make sure we are ready to deliver training once we’re able to do so.
“There is a clear and urgent clinical need for more dentists across the East of England and we hope to be able to help address some of those challenges.”
Work is already under way on an extension to the Edith Cavell Building on the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Campus. The ground floor will be home to UEA’s new anatomy suite and the first floor extension – supported by £1.5m from the Greater Norwich Growth Board – will form a key element of the Norwich Dental School.
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