Interview
“Mine will primarily be a leadership role and, with the knowledge that I have an excellent team working under me, I am very optimistic for
the future” Dr David Felix
Continued » When asked if the deaneries
south of the border are quite envious of their colleagues in Scotland, he said: “Not just quite envious – very envious at times, I would say. They probably look at the amount of funding we have had and wonder ‘How on earth did you manage to get that?’.” In a previous interview with Scottish Dental magazine (Aug/ Sept 20ıı, p30), Dr Felix’s prede- cessor as dean of the Dental Faculty at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Professor Richard Ibbetson, praised his work on setting up the tri-collegiate membership examinations and acknowledged the limitations a three-year term can present. Dr Felix responded by saying: “It
is very difficult, and in that role, which is for three years, it is virtu- ally impossible to come up with a novel idea and see it through. Unless you come up with a novel idea on day one. “But I never saw the dean’s
role at the Edinburgh college as being solely my mission, I saw what was achieved as a dental council achievement. It wasn’t just me. I would never have been able to move certain things
forward without the support of dental council. It certainly isn’t a one-man band.” And he believes that the Edin-
burgh college is in good hands with Prof Ibbetson, saying: “The tri-collegiate membership exams took a long time to get going and to finally get agreement. They are not up and running yet, but Richard is continuing to run with that ball. “It would be unfortunate if
you were dean for three years and then a new dean comes in and decides to change direction – that would mean that dentistry would get nowhere. It is grati- fying that Richard is adopting similar stances that I did in terms of the tri-collegiate member- ships, which I think will be of benefit to postgraduate dental education and training.” In terms of his aims and ambi-
tions for the dental directorate, Dr Felix insists that it is still early days and he is realistic about the challenges that lie ahead. He said: “My plan is to develop, but, because of the current financial situation, we will increasingly be expected to do more with less resource. However, I don’t anticipate that the budgets will be cut significantly.
“I am also keen that the dental
directorate plays a full part within NES. One of the stra- tegic aims within NES is to have greater integration between different directorates and I think there are lessons that can be learned from other directorates. “In the past, dentistry has been
held up as an exemplar within NES and it has always been seen as leading a variety of initiatives and we continue to do that. But there are other directorates within NES that are equally taking things forward and it is always helpful to learn from what they are doing, have greater inte- gration and share best practice.” And it is that spirit of team-
work and collaboration that Dr Felix hopes to tap into in order to drive the directorate forward. He said: “I don’t think any one person can be expected to know everything about postgraduate dental education. There are workstreams that people within the team will have far greater knowledge of than I will, so I will take the appropriate advice from the team. Mine will primarily be a leadership role and, with the knowledge that I have an excel- lent team working under me, I am very optimistic for the future.”
Scottish Dental magazine 25
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