lds2

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Dear Candidate

Licence in Dental Surgery (LDS) part II examination

We are writing to you to update you on the progress with the LDS part II of the

examination of The Royal College of Surgeons of England . As you know the GDC

inspectors at the recent Summer sitting found parts of the examination

insufficient for the purpose of registration and at the request of the GDC the

College ha s withdrawn the Summer examination. Whilst the College is convinced

of the robustness, transparency and high standards of the examination, it ha s,

at the GDC's request, produced an action plan in response to the inspectors'

findings. The College ha s submitted the action plan which it hopes will meet

the desired standards of both The Royal College of Surgeons of England ,

external examiners and the GDC inspectors. Central to the plan is t ha t a

pilot examination (a test run) will be run in the presence of a GDC inspection

team with our external examiners. It is planned to run this part of the

examination in January 2011 using final year BDS students to trial the

examination. Following satisfactory completion of this pilot examination which

meets the requirements both of the GDC and the external examiners, we will then

run the next sitting of the part II LDS examination. Our best estimate of the

earliest date for an exam, if everything goes smoothly and we receive favourable

inspection reports from the pilot, will be around March/April 2011. Dates will

be announced as soon as possible.

Once the examination is running again priority for places will be given to

candidates who sat the withdrawn July 2010 sitting of the examination, secondly

candidates who were due to sit the postponed 2010 sitting and lastly other

candidates who ha ve already passed LDS part I before the part II delay.

The Royal College of Surgeons of England team are working on the above plan with

the GDC. We hope to shortly ha ve full agreement to the plan.

I hope t ha t the information given above is helpful and explains the progress t

ha t ha s been made with the LDS examination during this difficult time. Can I

reassure all concerned t ha t the College and its team are doing all they can to

develop this examination for the benefit of candidates and the furtherance of

the highest standards in dental and healthcare in the United Kingdom.

Yours sincerely

Derrick Willmot, Dean and Farida Fortune, C ha ir of Examinations