The new Aberdeen Dental School has opened it’s doors to student dentists. The actual new centre has been treating NHS patients since June 2009. It really is a welcome boost to the NHS Dental Service in Scotland, and the patients it serves.
Scotland has a massive deficit in the number of NHS dentists and has a very poor service to the Scottish taxpayer and population in past years.
Recent government figures state that 31,000 of the 80,000 population in the grampian area are without an NHS dentist.
The dental school is not brand new in principle, it actually opened in 2008, but the students and teachers moved to this new building at the end of January 2010. The dental school is linked and run by the University of Aberdeen and is funded by the Scottish Government and Grampian NHS directive.
A University spokesman told us:
Students’ fees are paid by the Government through the Scottish Funding Council.
Those who receive the bursary will have to work in the NHS for at least 5 years after they qualify.
The school cost £17.7 million and is truly a state of the art dental training facility. The SNP Government delivered the dental school on time and £2.5 million under budget. Maybe some lessons could be learned here by us here in England in overseeing projects and budgets.
The dentistry project project was a partnership between NHS Grampian, Aberdeen University, Dundee University Dental School, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Government. It was funded by £13.6m from the Scottish Government and £4.1m from NHS Grampian.
It was First Minister Alex Salmond who officially opened the new facility. He had this to say on the opening day:
“The Scottish Government is committed to reversing the long term decline in dentists in Scotland. Since March 2007, the number of dentists has risen by more than 10%, and we are determined to ensure that this trend continues.
“This fantastic facility, which was delivered on time and significantly under budget, will play a key part in the Scottish Government’s drive to improve the dental service provided to the people of Scotland.
“Aberdeen Dental School will deliver a significant increase in the number of NHS dentists, and our incentives will help ensure that they stay here and continue to practise in areas such as the North East, where there is most need.
“I am confident that this school will become a cornerstone of Scotland’s health service and educational tradition, producing highly skilled dentists for many years to come.”
Professor William Saunders, Dean of the School of Dentistry at the University of Dundee, had this to say:
“‘The University of Dundee is privileged to have had major involvement in the development and implementation of the new Dental School in Aberdeen. Our partnership with the Scottish Government, the University of Aberdeen, NHS Grampian and NHS Education for Scotland has worked extremely well and the experience and expertise in undergraduate dental education we bring to the new School has ensured a strong foundation for this joint venture.”
Watch the video of the opening day at the new dental training facility in Aberdeen, along with coverage of the equipment, student dentists, and Alex Salmond’s comments.
