Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

As NHS primary care contractors, dental practices are being invited to order more lateral flow devices (LFDs) on the PCSE online portal to re-supply their staff. It is imperative that primary care staff regularly testing through LFDs always report their results online.

Although taking a test is entirely voluntary, staff who test should always report their results on gov.uk. This is extremely important as it helps provide a more accurate local picture of infection rates and therefore helps to reduce infection rates in local communities, protect people at higher risk of infection, and prevent and reduce the spread of the virus.

Contractors are encouraged to have conversations with their staff members to remind them about the duty to report their results.

All test results should be reported whether negative, void or positive, as this is a statutory notifiable disease reporting requirement.

If you’re a health worker, you may be eligible for a 1-year extension to your visa for free. This is because of coronavirus (COVID-19). To get the extension, you must have a visa that expires between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021 and work for the NHS or an independent healthcare provider in an eligible profession. Dental practitioners are counted as an eligible profession.

The extension will apply from the date your visa is due to expire.For further information see GOV.UK: Visa extensions for health workers during coronavirus (COVID-19)

It is vital that dental services are making use of the best digital technologies and engaging with
infrastructure to avoid being left behind. The use of SNOMED CT is for the recording of clinical information and not for remuneration purposes. It is the accepted terminology for healthcare records and transfer of patient information in England. 

In light of the current challenges of COVID, minister Jo Churchill has agreed to a postponement of full compliance for practices no later than 31 August 2021. During the next few months suppliers and practitioners should actively work to implement the terminology by this date.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) has published revised guidance on the completion of the FP17 and FP17O records. These documents have been developed for practices that use the online FP17 forms, available through Compass and also contains answers to some of the more commonly asked questions relating to the completion of the FP17s. They can also be used as a training tool for anyone new to NHS dentistry.

It should be noted that any FP17 / FP17O claims must be received by the June schedule cut-off date to be included in your Year End Report. All FP17 claims must also be received within two months of completion for the UDA to be awarded and the date of completion should accurately be completed in order for the claim to be placed in the correct financial year. Any FP17 claims received after the June schedule cut-off date will be processed, however, the message ‘missed year end report’ will appear next to these claims on your schedule.

You can access the documents online.

The Government is extending the provision of free COVID-19 PPE to health and social care providers until the end of March 2022. Following the previous announcement of free PPE provision until the end of June 2021, the scheme will now be extended to the end of March 2022 as the expectation of clinical experts is that usage will remain high throughout the next financial year. 

This will ensure that dentists and their teams can continue to access rigorously tested and high-quality PPE. Providers should continue to access COVID-19 PPE via their current distribution channels. 

Order limits for dentists can continue to be found on the government's website.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Friends and Family Test data submission was suspended from March 2020. Data submission resumed from December 2020 for acute and community providers (including independent sector providers) 

Dental practices should plan to start submitting data from July 2021 (with July’s data submitted in August).

New guidance on the Friends and Family Test can be found online.

If you have any questions, please contact the Friends and Family Test Helpdesk via england.friendsandfamilytest@nhs.net 

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has approved an extension to an existing temporary measure in England to help limit the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19) by suspending the need for patients to sign prescription, dental and ophthalmic forms.

The suspension was initially for a period of 5 months up to 31 March 2021 and is now extended for a further 3 months until 30 June 2021.

This is to avoid cross contamination and help minimise the handling of paperwork when collecting medicines or receiving dental and eye care. This must be carried out in line with the criteria set out in online.

NHS England has partnered with the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management to establish the new NHS Regional Clinical Fellow Scheme. The scheme will deliver on a key commitment of the NHS People Plan 2020/21 to expand the opportunities and support to talented clinical leaders and to strengthen clinical leadership capability in the NHS. 

Chief Dental Officer Sara Hurley is keen to develop the dental leaders of the future and this is a great new way of doing so at regional level.

What are the NHS Regional Clinical Fellows?

• Clinical fellows will lead key projects that contribute to regional and national priorities supporting recovery, reset and the implementation of learning from the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Clinical fellows will develop a range of skills in leadership, management, strategy, healthcare policy, commissioning, workforce and more, and will have access to a supported alumni scheme upon completion for ongoing support, development and to act as a resource for the NHS to draw on.
• Fellows will have the opportunity to work in regional systems in flexible roles, leading improvement projects across clinical pathways and to gain the necessary experience and skills for future system leadership roles.
• Clinical fellows will be based in the regional teams of the NHS for 12 months from 1 September 2021.
• Posts are available as less than full time (0.6FTE) secondments and will be hosted by NHS England and NHS Improvement.
• The scheme is open to qualified clinicians that hold full registration with the relevant professional body and are able to demonstrate experience at team leader level, equivalent to an NHS Band 7 role.
• The regional and national dental fellows will be brought together though the joint education programme.

The deadline for applications is 9am on Tuesday 4 May 2021. See the FMLM website for full details on how to apply.

Please direct any questions or requests for further information to clinicalfellowscheme@fmlm.ac.uk

Health Education England are carrying out a national dental workforce survey looking at dentist's current careers, exploring any factors which they may have encountered over their practicing lifetime which may have influenced their careers. This information will be fed anonymously into the Advancing Dental Care report – which will help support the development and improvement of the dental education and training structures within the NHS, aiding future workforce planning and supporting career opportunities. 

The survey only takes 15-minute and is anonymous. More information on how to complete the survey is online.

The Department of Health and Social Care has published a consultation document, Regulating healthcare professionals, protecting the public setting out proposals for reforming the legislation under which each of the healthcare professional regulators operate, including the GDC. The above link includes details on how to respond.

The consultation is open until Wednesday 16 June 2021. 

The DHSC and the Welsh Government are seeking views on reforms to the national Clinical Excellence Award (CEA) scheme with the aim of introducing a new scheme from April 2022. 

Consultant doctors and dentists and academic GPs are amongst the most highly-trained workers in the UK. Their skills are valuable and sought-after both nationally and internationally by private medical providers, academic institutions and the life sciences industry. National CEAs (NCEAs) are an important mechanism for the NHS to retain these skills, allowing the service to maintain its reputation as a world leader in healthcare delivery, clinical research, and medical training, and improve efficiency and effectiveness in all these domains.

This consultation proposes to broaden access to the scheme, make the application process fairer and more inclusive, and to also change the current application process.

This consultation closes on Wednesday 16 June 2021.

Further information is online.

Contributing to patient safety and public confidence in dental services, a well-trained, motivated and competent dental team is in everyone’s interests. Employers and managers of dental professionals, who may not be General Dental Council (GDC) registrants, play a significant role in ensuring patients receive high standards of service and care.

The GDC has published "Supporting the dental team", an online resource for employers, managers, and contractors of dental services. In addition to information to support dental professionals in understanding and meeting their regulatory responsibilities, the resource also covers well-being of the dental team and handling feedback and concerns.

The resource is available on the GDC's Supporting the dental team page.