The two-year longitudinal dental foundation training programme: an option worth revisiting

Two-year longitudinal dental foundation training (LDFT) programmes are available for dental graduates through a national recruitment process. These two-year schemes have been around for many years and enable foundation dentists to gain valuable experiences in general practice as well as the hospital and community services. However, the LDFT schemes have closed in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in recent years, leaving the North East England General Professional Training (GPT) scheme and the Yorkshire and Humberside LDFT scheme as the only two LDFT/GPT schemes left. With the Health Education England (HEE) 'Advancing Dental Care' project in progress, HEE are looking at reforming dental education and training to meet new and continued expectations. LDFT/GPT has been highlighted already in stage one of the project and will be considered further in stage two. Following frequent discussions in the project, this could offer an opportunity to expand and develop future LDFT/GPT schemes around the UK.