Local interns should come first: dentists

CONTRADICTION:
People studying dentistry abroad must also undergo exams and training and “slander and bullying” must stop, a local group has said.

• Lee Yi-chia / Staff Writer

A group of dentists marched in Taipei yesterday calling on the government to amend laws to reduce the maximum number of dental trainees with foreign degrees and to prevent unlicensed foreign-trained dental graduates from applying for the rural health program.

The protest was organized by the Taiwan General Dentist Association (TGDPA) and the Taiwan Dental Alliance (本土小牙醫聯盟) and was attended by hundreds of dentists in lab coats and other supporters.

In a statement, the TGDPA said it is asking the Ministry of Health and Welfare to re-evaluate its NT$2.4 billion (US$73.64 million) rural health improvement program and not allow foreign dental graduates without a background to apply. licenses.

Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times

It states that the eligibility of overseas dental graduates to appear in the national dental licensing examination must be strictly verified.

He also demanded a cap on the number of dental trainees in the country, with the percentage of trainees who studied dentistry abroad not exceeding 10 percent among domestic graduates.

To achieve this goal, the Doctors Law (醫師法) must be amended, it said.

A total of 391 students enroll in Taiwan’s dental schools each year, and while the ideal faculty-to-student clinical ratio is 1:1 or 1:2, the government sets it at 1:4, allowing 50 foreign graduates to become trainees. ” said Wang Tongmei (王東美), assistant professor of dentistry at National Taiwan University.

The large number of foreign trainees and the workload they place on teachers can affect the quality of teaching, she said.

According to her, unlike domestic trainees, there is no mechanism for screening and failing foreign trainees.

The second phase of the ministry’s Rural Health Development Program will allow foreign-educated graduates to apply for the program even if they have not completed an internship or passed the dental licensing exam, said Taiwan Dental Alliance Chairman Huang Ying-chi (黃映綺).

She said there could be as many as 100 foreign-educated trainees in Taiwan each year.

The program says it will provide dental services to 55 rural areas that do not have dentists, but in reality they only lack dental clinics since more than half have dental stations and mobile health services, she said.

Data over the past 15 years show that since Taiwan began recognizing academic degrees from foreign dental schools, more than 80 percent of foreign-educated trainees have remained in the country’s six special municipalities, lower than the rate of local dental graduates.

In Taiwan, dentists with foreign degrees are commonly referred to as “Popo doctors/dentists” (波波醫生) as most of them studied in Poland after the country joined the EU in 2004 and began English-language degree programs in health sciences .

Over the past few years, Taiwanese have also completed medical or dental programs in other European countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.

The International Dental Union Alumni Association stated that Taiwan’s dental school graduation rate is 100 percent, while many overseas dental or medical schools have only 50-60 percent, so going abroad to study dentistry is not “diploma shopping.”

Overseas dental graduates must also undergo the same exams and training as domestic graduates and obtain a dental license in Taiwan, it said.

The Taiwan Dental Alliance should stop “slandering and intimidating” them, it said.

Additional reporting by Chen Chia-yi