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New £21m dental training centre
06/10/2008
A new £21 million dental training centre was officially opened today.
The Aberdeen Dental School is set to produce 20 fully-qualified dentists every year, providing a significant increase in the numbers of trained practitioners entering the profession in Scotland.
Incentives are in place to encourage graduates to work within the NHS and it is expected many will choose to practise in the the North and North-East of Scotland, thereby improving access to NHS dentistry for thousands of people across the region.
The dental school project has been made possible by more than £21 million of funding from the Scottish Government and NHS Grampian.
This year's students will begin their studies in an existing building at NHS Grampian's Foresterhill site, but work has already begun on the new Aberdeen Dental School building, due to be completed in October 2009.
The state-of-the-art complex will feature facilities for radiography, restorative dentistry, consultant orthodontics, dental laboratories, student laboratories and office accommodation.
To mark the occasion of the first round of entrants beginning their training, Ms Robison visited the dental school to celebrate with staff and students.
Public Health Minister Shona Robison said:
"The new Aberdeen Dental School will be a centre of excellence for the North of Scotland and an important asset for the whole country.
"Today's opening proves how serious we in the Scottish Government are about reversing the long-term decline in NHS dentistry in Scotland.
"Young dentists who train at the dental school will provide a significant boost to the numbers of trained practitioners in our country, helping to bring NHS dentistry within reach of more and more people.
"We want as many people as possible to have access to an NHS dentist because we know good oral health is a key component of general health and wellbeing. For that reason, we have realised this key manifesto pledge quickly.
"In the 60th anniversary year of NHS Scotland, this is a fitting monument to our determination to ensure that everyone in Scotland has access to good quality healthcare - and this must include dentistry."
Professor Stephen Logan, Senior Vice Principal at the University of Aberdeen, said: "Together with our partners - NHS Grampian, the University of Dundee and NHS Education for Scotland - the University of Aberdeen is delighted to be delivering an entirely new model in dental education for Scotland.
"The University of Aberdeen Dental School is a tremendously important development in relation to dental education and dental service provision for Aberdeen and the North East of Scotland.
"Its creation also further confirms Aberdeen's leadership in innovative and first class training of health professionals for our communities."
In the first year of operation, the new dental school will train a cohort of 15 students, with 20 students per year to be admitted in subsequent years. The graduate-entry level course of study they will follow lasts four years.
In August, the Scottish Government announced a 75 million pound investment programme in NHS capital projects over the next two years, a key priority of which will be the improvement of dental facilities. The investment represents a 17 per cent increase in funding and is split proportionately among Scotland's 14 territorial health boards.
The NHS Scotland Student Bursary Scheme provides 4,000 pounds per year of study to dental undergraduates, on condition that recipients carry out five years (or part time equivalent) of NHS dental work in Scotland, beginning within one year of graduation.
Figures released recently by ISD showed that in the year ending March 31, 2008, the number of general dental practitioners in Scotland increased by 102 (4.1 per cent) to 2,576.
The Childsmile School programme, launched in December, targets children in the most deprived areas in each NHS board area and provides additional preventative care, including twice yearly fluoride varnish applications. To date over 10,000 such interventions have been provided in the pilot Boards in the East of Scotland - over 2,000 of these for primary school children. The programme is currently being rolled out in Grampian, Highland and the Island Boards and will be operational in all Boards by the end of 2009/10.