Changes in qualification requirements for Hong Kong dental students were “not unilaterally or arbitrarily imposed”, the profession’s watchdog insisted on Thursday.
The Dental Council of Hong Kong bit back after criticism by the former dean of the city’s only dentistry school.
The council said in a four-page statement that it wanted to “clarify the facts and set the record straight” to maintain public confidence in the city’s dental profession.
“[The] requirements of clinical experience are not unilaterally or arbitrarily imposed by the council, but rather were developed in consultation with the faculty,” it explained.
The council added that the process took into account overseas literature, experience and accreditation rules in a variety of jurisdictions, as well as the design of the Hong Kong curriculum, to “ensure the requirements would be achievable”.
The council spoke out after Professor Thomas Flemmig, the recently-retired dean of the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) dentistry faculty, said in an interview with the Post that quantitative requirements imposed in 2019 were not backed by evidence and failed to reflect graduates’ competencies.
The 2019 changes included the need for dental students to have treated at least 50 patients of five different types, and perform minimum numbers in 20 types of dental procedures before they were qualified to work in the city.
But Flemmig questioned if the added requirements accurately reflected the students’ competence.
The council, however, said the accreditation requirements involved quality and quantity, which were “contradictory to the quoted remarks as reported in media coverage”.
“The quantitative requirement of clinical experience is not the only assessment criterion in the accreditation exercise,” it added.
The training of dentists came under the spotlight in April after the government proposed one-year internships for city graduates to boost their clinical experience.
Officials said the changes were needed to tackle concerns raised by the council.
These included structural problems with clinical training in HKU’s undergraduate dentistry programme, which were included in accreditation reports from 2014, 2019 and 2023.
The council also said some students had “severely inadequate” clinical experience and “zero experience” in particular dental procedures.
Flemmig earlier said the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted clinical teaching.
Problems included the months-long closure of the teaching hospital, which made it difficult for students to meet the council’s requirements.
The council said on Thursday that it understood the problems caused by the pandemic, so it had offered an opportunity for the faculty to “rectify the non-compliances”.
“The council is confused and puzzled by the remarks made by Professor Thomas Flemmig … that the Covid-19 pandemic was a defence for the failure to meet the requirements as quoted in the media reports,” it added.
The council said it had been in communication with the faculty about clinical training problems during accreditation exercises since 2012 and had asked it to take remedial action, but the faculty had not made any significant changes.
It added the claim that all 2023 city dental graduates had met clinical requirements was untrue.
The council said Dr Lee Kin-man, the council chairman, met Professor Jin Lijian, the acting dean of the dental faculty, to discuss the accreditation exercise.
