Dear editor

I am becoming increasingly concerned with the lack of direction and availability to qualify as a Level 1, 2 or 3 skilled practitioner in NHS dentistry. Clinical pathways are being developed and implemented requiring these skills, yet not enough is being done by the Department of Health, the GDC or the Royal Colleges to facilitate it.

The NHS states that ‘there is no more money’ so presumably any further training will have to be self-funded, making a nice sinecure for academic institutions and yet again increasing the cost of education to our young graduates.

This is at one end of the scale.

At the other end is a cohort of very experienced practitioners who have no actual postgraduate certification but are very skilled in certain disciplines, particularly orthodontics and oral surgery, but may not wish to invest the time at their stage in life to obtaining the paperwork.

I would have thought it would be sensible – and cost-effective – to have some sort of ‘grand-parenting’ scheme whereby GDPs such as these could qualify as a Level 2 with submission of a portfolio of evidence which could include a consultant recommendation, reflective learning and case studies.