Opportunities and challenges: the future of OMFS

29 June 2017 (Last updated: 29 Jun 2017 13:38)

Why can’t graduate training be more like the Aldi model?

Graduate training should be more like the Aldi supermarket model, a delegate said in the big debate at the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS) annual scientific conference in Birmingham. Delegates had free rein to say what they felt about the future of the speciality, what the issues are and what could be done.

An animated debate focused on the length of training needed for the double dental/medical degree and whether this was necessary, and the impact the cost of self-funding the second degree has on trainees and recruitment to the speciality.

Trainees were in no doubt that the costs were prohibitive, and many in the hall at Birmingham’s ICC agreed the student loan system and self-funding the second degree had become a real disincentive.

But, there was consensus that the length of training was not an issue, and the skill set achieved with the dental and medical degrees was vital to competency. Responding to the question of whether the double degree was necessary, Patrick Magennis (BAOMS Council Chair) said that “the work we do needs both for complex surgery. There is no easy solution”.

David Koppel (BAOMS Council member) called for greater diversity and flexibility in training programmes to attract more women into the speciality. He said that BAOMS wanted both flexibility and to shorten the length of training “and the GMC is now receptive to this”.  A contribution from the floor echoed his call to attract more women into speciality, but with the warning that there were too few women role models.

Winding up the debate, Chair Sat Parmar (BAOMS Council President Designate) commented at the end of the session that the length of training was not an issue because most consultants would be working until they reached 70 year-of-age.

 

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