Rebecca Hierons
President
BAOS Spotlight article June 2018
CESR – Veni, vidi, vici?
The BAOS Council have been aware for some time now of the problem facing a large proportion of our Staff Grade, Associate Specialist and Speciality Dentists (SAS) members with regard to specialist list entry. As many will know, a large number of SAS missed being grandfathered onto the specialist list and despite providing high level Oral Surgery (OS) services in secondary care have no mechanism to apply for entry.
This is at odds with our medical SAS colleagues who do have a way to apply for specialist status via the GMC Certificate of Eligibility for Specialist Registration (CESR) route which has been functioning successfully for some years. In all other aspects of the grade there is no contractual distinction and national terms and conditions are exactly the same.
There will soon be a widening workforce gap in Oral Surgery as the older generation of specialists retire as there are not enough new specialists being generated at present to fill this gap. We currently have 41 specialist training posts generating around 13-14 new OS specialists a year – not nearly enough to deliver the service, teaching and training essential for good patient care.
This gap could potentially be filled by the large number of experienced Oral Surgery practitioners via a robust CESR route. To this end, BAOS have written to the BDA to ask for a review of the current systems in place for entry onto specialist lists. We very much hope that, in collaboration with the BDA, CCHDS and other Stakeholders, we can find a way forward via CESR that would benefit our speciality and ensure gold standard OS treatment for all. Unlike the hapless Julius, there may yet be a happy ending!
Rebecca Hierons
President