Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

Monday 2nd November 2020

Update from Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer England 

I can confirm that this includes NHS dental services. Therefore, during the period of tighter restrictions practices should remain open to treat patients in line with the standard operating procedure and with regard to the recently updated national infection prevention control dental appendix. Detail on both of these were shared in last week’s update and are repeated below.

As a reminder, I am also hosting a webinar this Thursday 5th November at 16:30 on the recent infection prevention control guidelines. Public Health England will be on the call, too. You can find details on how to sign up below. I hope you can join us. 

Additionally, I want to draw your attention to Friday’s decision by the Secretary of State to temporary suspend the need for patients to sign prescription, dental and ophthalmic forms for a period of 5 months to 31 March 2021. Further detail is below and I encourage practice managers to read the detail carefully.

I really do appreciate how hard everyone is working to provide dental care right now. Please look after yourselves and I will update you again soon.

Kind wishes - and thanks,

Sara

Temporary approval to suspend the need for signatures on prescriptions, dental and ophthalmic forms

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has approved a 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 for a period of 5 months to 31 March 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 by the Department online here.

Patients will still be required to either pay the relevant charge or prove their eligibility for an exemption from charges. Where patients are exempt from charges, the dispensing contractor, dental or ophthalmic contractor will mark the form on the patient’s behalf to confirm the patient’s entitlement to exemption and, where applicable, to confirm that the patient’s evidence of eligibility has not been seen. Additionally, where patients would otherwise be required to sign the dental and ophthalmic forms, contractors will annotate the form with ‘COVID-19’ instead.

Further detail from the Department of Health and Social Care is online.

New infection prevention control guidance and our NHS dentistry webinar

New infection prevention control guidance

The recently published  Dental Appendix to the UK infection prevention control guidance - issued jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health England the devolved nations' public health authorities contains the necessary detail to keep your patients, your teams and yourself safe. You should read the guidance in full online here.

The guidance addresses one of the key challenges facing dental practices; the duration of the post Aerosol Generating Procedure (AGP) downtime.The guidance details the variable duration of the post AGP downtime, with detail of the required mitigating measures and ventilation parameters. In summary where a surgery’s ventilation system  can achieve 6 to 9 Air Changes/Hour (ACH), a baseline post AGP downtime of 20 minutes is recommended. Where there are 10 or more ACH, a baseline post AGP downtime of 15 minutes is recommended.

As detailed in the UK IPC Guidance for dental settings FFP3 masks are recommended for AGP procedures. As recommended in the main IPC guidance on page 41, “FFP3 and loose fitting powered hoods provide the highest level of protection and are recommended when caring for patients in areas where high risk aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) are being performed. Where the risk assessment shows an FFP2 respirator is suitable, they are recommended as a safe alternative”.

This means that as there are existing stocks of FFP2 masks, it is understood that it may be necessary for practices to continue to use these until staff are successfully fit tested and supplied with the appropriate FFP3.

NHS dentistry webinar with the Chief Dental Officer and Public Health England - Thursday 5 November at 16:30 on Microsoft Teams 

Sara Hurley is holding a webinar on how infection prevention control and the new fallow time requirements are due to work in dental settings. She will be joined by representatives from Public Health England and our Deputy Chief Dental Officers Eric Rooney and Jason Wong. The webinar will last approximately an hour.

Click this link to register. Once you have registered for the webinar you will be sent a link to join.

For more information on joining the briefing via Microsoft Teams please refer to this guide: Guidance for external parties joining a meeting

COVID-19 latest advice and guidance 

NHS updates to the profession 

During the course of the pandemic, we have regularly written to the NHS dental profession with important updates and information. This and previous updates from the Chief Dental Officer and the NHS dentistry and oral health team are all online here. 

Transition to Recovery: Dentistry's standard operating procedure

This document is the essential guidance for all dental teams in England. In it, we detail all the key things dental teams need to know about how to run their services safely, for patients and themselves. The latest version was published on Tuesday 27 October. Changes to the previous SOP are in yellow. You can read the SOP online here. 

Urgent Dental Centres: Standard Operating Procedure 

If you work in an urgent dental centre or are responsible for one as a provider, or as a commissioner, then the Urgent Dental Centre SOP should be your guide. Changes to the previous SOP are in yellow. It was updated on Tuesday 27 October and is online here.

NHS dental teams and essential worker status 

The Government defines essential workers as all NHS and social care staff. The Chief Dental Officer has received confirmation from the Department of Health and Social Care that this includes the dental workforce actively engaged in supporting the NHS and maintaining dental care provision as part of the UK’s health and social care sectors . 

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