Sustainable and fit-for-purpose OMFS training, BAOMS President pledges
25 March 2021 (Last updated: 26 Mar 2021 07:21)
British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial (BAOMS) Surgeons 2021 President Austen Smith is using his Presidential Year to push for a more sustainable, shorter, fit-for-purpose and affordable training pathway for an OMFS career.
“My aim is to reduce duplication and condense the acquisition of skills into a UK-wide, accessible and consistent route to a career in OMFS,” the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust-based OMFS Consultant said.
“Over 23 years of surgical practice in Sheffield and Barnsley I have come to appreciate how critical a good training is in a challenging field of surgical care. I want to see straightforward, nationally applied and sustainable training for those who are interested in and commit to this magical specialty,” he explained.
He remembers how much of a major life commitment, costly in tuition fees and time OMFS training was for him: “I can remember being near-broke in the latter stages of my second degree and will always be grateful to my local authority Kirklees for a student grant that at the time saved me – and also the bank of mum and dad as with many students currently.”
Austen Smith says that historical barriers to improvements in the length of OMFS training have resulted in expensive and overlong duplication of young clinicians’ education. He believes that some of the barriers to change will now be removed because EU legislation will no longer affect medical and dental courses.
“BAOMS will encourage training bodies to see the sense and value in new proposals to streamline the overall pathway from new graduate to OMFS consultant,” he said.
He is also committed to protect the interests of Fellows in Training, the BAOMS Associate Membership for junior OMFS trainees: “Junior colleagues hold key roles in hospital OMFS departments across the UK. They are at an early stage in their careers, and a real change and improvement in the training trajectory could make a real difference to them.”
Austen Smith plans to open what he has called a Heritage Hall that would recognise and celebrate the contribution all OMFS colleagues to the specialty after their death: “This is not about the pre-eminent, well-published or those who’ve held high position, as it is so often. This is about how we and families and friends record the contribution, life and achievements of clinicians working at every level who have given to the development of OMFS in the UK,” he explained.
This initiative, and another to ensure the BAOMS website is rapidly updated with relevant news videos, is made possible with discretionary funds available to BAOMS Presidents.
Austen Smith’s clinical work focuses primarily on head and neck cancer, reconstructive, maxillofacial trauma, laser and dentoalveolar surgery. This is complemented by a wide range of specialty interests that include teaching and training and recruiting the next generation of surgeons.
“I don’t believe those committing to this critical NHS specialty should have to spend disproportionately in investing in their training. I want to see a leaner, more efficient shape to OMFS training consistently applied across the UK, and that is what I have committed to initiate during my BAOMS Presidency,” Austen Smith concluded.
For further information and interviews contact: Siân Evans on 020 8674 8921 / 07752 414433 / or BAOMS
Notes to editors
View Other News