​World-famous children’s hospital, Great Ormand Street Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (GOSH), have been unable to recruit paediatric dental consultants for at least two years. A new report by Health Education England suggests that this has led to trainee doctors going unsupervised.

The news outlet, The Independent, has seen a report stating that the trust has been operating with one part-time consultant but needed at least two.

In its response, GOSH told The Independent that there is a “limited pool” of paediatric dentists. This has resulted in many patients waiting longer than the standard 18-weeks.

The Health Education England inspectors were sent to GOSH after “serious concerns” concerning trainee supervision levels were raised.

The inspection resulted in two junior doctors being removed until the hospital is able to appoint consultants to oversee them.

According to The Independent, the report said, “The HEE review panel were seriously concerned with the current clinical supervision arrangements for paediatric dentistry trainees due to staffing issues within the department and the limited capacity of the single, part-time paediatric dentistry clinical supervisor to provide consistent, adequate supervision of trainees.

“The trust reported that the consultant had worked extra hours and undertaken additional work to the detriment of their annual leave to try and provide a good learning experience for trainees, however, it was acknowledged that this had been a challenging time for the department.”

For the last 18 months, GOSH has only had one consultant subsequently, they have not had time to provide training.

A spokesperson for GOSH said to The Independent, “We understand the HEE decision to withdraw our dental trainees and are working closely with them to resolve the issues raised. As a Trust we encourage members of staff to speak up if they have any concerns so that we can improve the care of our patients and create the best working environment for colleagues.

“Because of staff shortages, we are experiencing significant delays within the service. This means that many of our patients are waiting longer than the national target for an appointment. We are reviewing all patients and prioritising appointments for those with the most urgent care needs. We are also talking to other hospitals about seeing the patients on our working list.”

Urshla Devalia, from the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, said, “We have to remember that tooth decay remains the leading reason for hospital admissions among 6 to 10-year-olds. BSPD believes this is wholly unacceptable when we consider that dental caries (tooth decay) is a largely preventable disease. The current NHS dental contract doesn’t work for children and dentists are handing back their contracts in unprecedented numbers – so yes, there is a nationwide crisis in children’s oral health that needs urgent attention.”

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