Refugee Dentist Steering Group 2 May 2007 Draft Minutes Minutes of a meeting of the Refugee Dentist Steering Group held at the BDA. Present: Peter Lowndes and Anwar Tappuni (Joint Chair) Maha Atia Dan Berry Refugees into Jobs British Dental Association (RIJ) (BDA) Amit Bose Department of Health (DH) Iain Corran M Sykes Genesis Judith Husband British Dental Association (BDA) Lars Isaksen Raj Rayan Zara Siddiqui NHS Employers London Deanery (NHS) Ross Scales Anwar Tappuni Rebecca Terry General Dental Council Migrant & Refugee Communities Forum & Kings College London British Dental Association (GDC) (MRCF) (BDA)
1. Chair s Report P Lowndes, welcomed members and outlined the agenda for the meeting. He commented that the Restoring Smiles document had been presented to Rep Body and had been well received. 2. Apologies Luisa Ares, Jo Waterfield, Natasha David, Ulrike Matthesius, Margaret Wilson,, Raj Rattan 3. Minutes of meeting held 17 January 2007 The minutes of the meeting were approved with no amendments. 4. Matters arising The remit of the group was discussed, in terms of including all non UK dentists. It was agreed there is a specific focus for this group, in particular assisting refugees. J Husband commented that overseas dentists need to be looked at by the BDA, as they have different needs to UK dentists, but felt that the steering group has a definite role to play for refugee dentists and should keep the focus there. J Husband confirmed that the Exec Board agreed to the Refugee Dentist Steering Group having a joint Chair. P Lowndes advised that the joint Chairing of the meeting would occur between the BDA and MRCF. L Isaksen commended an article in the BDA News, featuring a local dentist who had taken on two Refugee Dentists. A Tappuni suggested we send an article to BDA News, featuring a Refugee Dentist or a student that has succeeded and gained their IQE. R Terry to liaise with G Jackson and N David. M Atia will send information to R Terry for the Newsletter, MRCF to provide some information also. 5. GDC review of the IQE R Scales explained that the GDC were conducting a review of the IQE. He further explained that a new statutory examination would be introduced in the second half
of 2007. A new requirement for admission to the exam was that a candidate must have a specified amount of previous clinical experience (1600 hours). The reason for this is that, as the new exam did not contain patient contact, there was a risk that dentists could pass the exam having had little or no patient experience. They could then register and go directly into private practice possibly without ever having treated a patient. The GDC s primary concern is patient protection and they felt it necessary to address this issue. J Husband advised that Rep Body had agreed that clinical experience was necessary but they had not confirmed the number of hours they deemed appropriate. A Tappuni expressed concern over how long the consultation was taking. It would be very difficult for some refugees to prove their clinical experience, especially when they were unable to get their certificate of good standing. R Scales advised that while a certificate of good standing was ideal, they were flexible and a sworn affidavit can be used in its place. Once the exam is finalised, people would move through the process a lot faster. J Husband highlighted the importance of this meeting in planning the response from the BDA, including the views of the Refugee Dentist Steering Group. It was important we got our message across to the GDC to enable them to start planning ahead for refugees. R Scales explained that the outcome of the consultation would not be based on a numerical majority of responses received. He stated that in developing the new exam, the GDC would consider all groups along with their interests and needs, and that it was not the GDC s intention to stop overseas dentists entering the exam. In response to A Tappuni s concerns, J Husband suggested A Tappuni write a letter to the Editor of the BDJ to highlight the group s frustrations over the time frame of the new exam and the consultation. A Tappuni agreed to consult with MRCF and draft a response to the consultation and questions that had been raised at this meeting. 6. Barriers to Practice P Lowndes acknowledged that the path for Refugee Dentists was becoming more difficult with the barriers increasing and a lack of VT places. He felt the recent consultation with the GDC looking to impose a minimum of one year s clinical experience had only added to the problems faced by refugees.
A Tappuni suggested we approach deaneries for their support and find out if they could offer any assistance or advice. I Corran agreed and suggested sending letter to COPDEND to establish their views. ACTION J Husband felt this would be useful and advised contacting the Chair of the Education Committee, Graham Brown, for assistance with this. 7. Race Equality Impact Assessment In October 2006 the Minister for further and higher education, together with the LSC, announced a series of proposals to address the unsustainable growth in ESOL provision and ensure that those learners most in need were able to access English language provision. The decision was made that from 2007/08, ESOL learning would no longer attract automatic fee remission. Due to this change, a large number of people were in limbo, waiting for a decision or having been refused entry and can t return. Refugees and those people who currently received leave to remain would miss out unless they could prove low income or meet the criteria in another way. Since August 2005 refugees could not get indefinite leave to remain and cases were only reviewed after five years. If the home office was forcing people to go through this route, they should be supporting them with English Language provision. Taking this away would force refugees to retreat back into their groups and not be as involved in the mainstream. 8. Dentistry The Way Forward J Husband presented this paper and advised the Group that a lot of time was taken speaking to members about their experiences with the new contract. Among the findings was the fact that 10% of dentists left the NHS on April 1 2006. There was no more clarity with the new contract, the targets were contentious and 97% disagreed that the treadmill has been removed. A Bose felt this was an extreme way of looking at dentistry and that some areas were better than others. It was up to the local PCTs to manage this situation effectively as they had total control. L Isaksen queried that with one in ten dentists leaving the NHS, did we have constraints in services due to a declining work force?
P Lowndes advised that in the past there had been a shortage of dentists and now there was an oversupply with more being spent with private than NHS, so it was the way in which services were provided that were changing. 9. Membership Subscriptions The previous Temporary/Refugee Member grade was removed by the Concessions Working Group and subsumed under the low income concession. The removal of this category had caused confusion among those studying for their IQE and wishing to become members, as it was perceived that the BDA did not have a grade for this group. It was recommended that the Temporary/Refugee Member grade be reinstated in its own right, with the practice continued that Refugee Members be offered the first membership year free of charge. J Husband reported the Executive Board had overruled the committee s advice, and not only would they be keeping the category, but there would be a new concession category introduced. The purpose of this was to support IQE graduates. M Atia commented that to qualify, applicants must provide a letter from the Home Office. 2% of applicants will get Refugee Status, while the rest would get leave to remain status - not recognized as a refugee but allowed to stay because it was too dangerous for them to return. 10. Half Band Reporting Part of the entry requirement for the IQE was IELTS writing and speaking requirements. From July 1, the band scores were to be generated in half and full bands which was useful in terms of measuring the test. R Scales stated that a linguistic expert advised the GDC on the appropriate banding levels required. Z Siddiqui felt it would be beneficial to assess all four categories in the same way to get an overall picture. R Rayan would like to ask the GDC to re-examine their banding. 11. Projects for refugees and overseas dentists M Sykes advised they are looking at an internet message board and are making moves to get support. They have also started a partnership with NHS Networks and the Reach Out network.
J Husband suggested this be linked to our website too. L Isaksen explained that Building Bridges is a partnership document that covers a number of organisations, designed to support refugee healthcare professionals. It would be helpful if this was sent out to members. L Isaksen to send to R Terry. ACTION. A Tappuni reported that when the IQE group started 4 years ago, there were few members but they now had approximately 1600 members, (100 of which are refugees) and have helped over 600 pass the IQE. The group assisted with mentoring and weekly lectures. They supported refugees with exam fees, childcare and travel, but were having difficulties finding funding at present and had had to cut the weekly lecture down to every second week and cut all financial support. The other challenge the group was facing was the IQE being on hold, which meant that member s lives were now on hold. This combined with the lack of funding has made the job of supporting refugee dentists very difficult. I Corran suggested Dental Direct or the Resident Dentists Group as possibilities for funding. R Rayan will take this back to the Deanery and find out if there is any assistance or advice that would be of use to the group. ACTION. 12. Any other business P Lowndes mentioned temporary registration and advised he would find out if any progress has been made with this initiative. ACTION. R Terry to invite COPDEND to attend the next meeting. ACTION. 13. Date of next meeting Tuesday 2 October 2007 at the BDA, 64 Wimpole Street, London.