New Dental Academy
Posted on 03/02/2011
Lord Howe with dental students at the Academy
A new Dental Academy based at the University of Portsmouth was officially opened yesterday by Health Minister Lord Howe.
The Academy is an innovative education partnership between King’s College London’s Dental Institute and the University of Portsmouth. Every year 80 final year dental students from King’s will join dental hygiene, therapy and dental nursing students from Portsmouth to train and work together in teams.
Development of the new £9 million purpose-designed facility has been enabled by capital funding support from the Department of Health, the local NHS and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Supervised by tutors, the students provide dental treatment and advice to patients from Portsmouth, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The arrangements enable student dental care professionals and dentists to experience working as a team just as they will in practice, following a treatment model that empowers patients to take ownership of their oral health.
Lord Howe, who is the Minister with lead responsibility for Dentistry, said:
‘I was delighted to see the high quality hands-on training provided at Portsmouth Dental Academy today.
‘As set out in the NHS White Paper, we are committed to improving oral health for adults and children as well as increasing access to NHS dental services across the country. The University of Portsmouth Dental Academy has an important role to play in delivering on this agenda. They are providing first-class training and education for our future dentists and dental care professionals and excellent services to patients in the area.’
Historically the Portsmouth area has had significant oral health needs which the Dental Academy, working in partnership with others, will help to address. It aims to specifically target those people who have been previously considered hard to reach, including children, the elderly and those who, for a variety of reasons, have not had regular access to a NHS dentist.
The facility will cater for approximately 2000 new patients a year and provide a dynamic programme of continuing professional development training events for local dental care professionals.
Nairn Wilson, Dean and head of King’s Dental Institute, said: ‘King's College London Dental Institute is delighted to have joined forces with the University of Portsmouth to create the Dental Academy, with a focus on innovation in the education of the dental team and the student experience.
‘We look forward to working with the University to build on the early success of the Academy to expand its range of activities to include research of international standing and state of the art postgraduate education and training.
‘Today's formal opening of the Academy marks the beginning of a most promising, forward looking collaborative venture with enormous potential.’
The event was attended by over a hundred members of the local dental community, representatives from the local NHS and from King’s, joined by University of Portsmouth Chancellor, the actor Sheila Hancock.
The University of Portsmouth Dental Academy succeeds and builds on the University of Portsmouth School of Professionals Complementary to Dentistry, which opened in 2005.
Notes to editors
King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (2010 QS international world rankings), The Sunday Times 'University of the Year 2010/11' and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has nearly 23,000 students (of whom more than 8,600 are graduate students) from nearly 140 countries, and some 5,500 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.
King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.
King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.
King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.
For further information please contact Emma Reynolds, Press Officer at King’s College London, on 0207 848 4334 or email emma.reynolds@kcl.ac.uk