Your NHS dentistry and oral health update

Thursday 4th February 2021

An update from Jason Wong, Deputy Chief Dental Officer 

Sadly, we saw this week a member of our profession assaulted in practice. Our minister Jo Churchill said "This is completely unacceptable. No one goes to work to be assaulted. Abuse of any sort against dentists, their teams or other patient facing professions is completely wrong & will not be tolerated". I couldn't agree more. I want my colleagues, my friends, my patients, myself, to all be able to be in practice without fear for our safety. I hope our colleague gets well soon.

One question that I have been asked repeatedly is whether we should currently be restricting our practices to urgent care only. My answer to colleagues has been a consistent no. Although there is a need to prioritise urgent care in line with the other settings of the NHS we have been asked to maximise capacity for carrying out essential care for our patients. Where we are able to, we owe it to our patients to address the backlog of urgent and essential care that has built up since March 2020. 

The NHS is also increasing its support offer to those working in NHS dentistry. The Looking After You Too service is now up and running. This is a space for you to offload the demands of whatever you are experiencing and be supported in developing practical strategies for dealing with this. More detail is below.

We've also included details on the NHS' push to take on Covid-19 vaccine con men. The NHS will never charge for the vaccine and there is no need to apply for the vaccine - spread the message! 

When I started as Deputy Chief Dental Officer back in the summer, one of my missions was to improve communication with the frontline. This bulletin is a part of that. I'm very keen to hear from as many people in the dental family on how we can make this bulletin better and the sort of things that you want to hear from us about.

The CDO office is easily reached, just drop us a line at England.CDOExecutive@nhs.net

Al the best,

Jason

Changes to NHS dentistry's standard operating procedure 

Dentistry's standard operating procedure, 'Transition to Recovery', is published on the NHS website and changes from previous versions are in yellow. We encourage you to read this in detail.

In summary, the key changes are:

• Symptomatic staff can access testing via the GOV.UK website (or call 119) and should identify themselves as essential workers. 
• Staff with symptoms of COVID-19 should stay at home as per advice for the public. Staff who are well enough to continue working from home should be supported to do so. If staff become unwell with symptoms of COVID-19 while at work, they should put on a surgical face mask immediately, inform their line manager and return home.
• Lateral flow antigen testing is now being rolled out in primary care for asymptomatic staff delivering NHS services in England. Primary care contractors that ordered lateral flow devices on or before 17 January 2021 will now have received their deliver. Orders received after that date will be delivered as part of their business as usual deliveries from PCSE.
• Patient-facing primary care staff are asked to test themselves twice weekly and report their results to Public Health England (PHE), via the NHS Digital online platform. Please be aware that it is a statutory requirement to report all results, including negative, positive or void.
• For patients who are COVID-19 possible/confirmed cases and contacts (seen in designated Urgent Dental Care Centres only) – avoid AGPs where possible, unless there is no alternative treatment option and/or the AGP intervention cannot be deferred.

Carers, escorts and parents attending treatment with patients

Colleagues have asked for clarity over whether a carer, escort or parent can attend with a patient in the treatment room. 

COVID-19: infection prevention and control dental appendix states on page 6 that "Only the person receiving dental treatment should attend unless a carer or escort is required for example a child. The use of face masks is mandatory for healthcare staff and all members of the dental team should wear masks in dental settings at all times. Face coverings/masks are required by members of the public in public places such as [...] dental surgeries/clinics". 

Public Health England recommends that carers, parents or escorts are risk assessed on each individual case basis.

Encouraging dental professionals to take their COVID-19 vaccine

Chief Dental Officer Sara Hurley joined with the other chief professional officers in a letter to all health and care professionals, reiterating that as people who work directly with some of those who are most vulnerable, we have a collective duty both to protect ourselves for their sake, and to lead by example.

Please share this letter far and wide so all our profession hear the message to get your COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you are invited to. 

Again, a reminder that if you are a non NHS practice please make sure your contact details with the CQC are up to date so the NHS has a way of getting in touch with you. 

2020/21 contract management webinars 

On behalf of NHSE&I, PCC have published four webinars which will help you to understand the Issue 7 Preparedness Letter and supporting guidance for dental contract management arrangements for the 2020/21 year-end reconciliation. 

The webinars cover: 

• Webinar 1- Time periods 1 and 2
• Webinar 2- Time period 3 (UDA contracts)
• Webinar 3- Time Period 3 (UOA contracts)
• Webinar 4- Time Period 3 (Other contract types)

PCC have also made text transcripts of the webinars available.

Further detail is on the NHS Business Services Authority website.

Pension scheme information for dentists who work in secure settings 

NHS dentists who currently hold or previously held NHS Standard Contracts or Personal Dental Services Contracts, or who worked under such contracts, to deliver Dental Services in the secure and detained estate, including prisons, immigration removal centres and secure children’s homes, may have been informed that they are not eligible to be part of the NHS Pension Scheme, which is incorrect.

If you believe you have been wrongly omitted from the NHS Pension Scheme whilst delivering Dental Services in these settings, please complete this form and submit to nhsbsa.retrospectivemembership@nhs.net who will calculate the arrears of employee contributions.

Completing and submitting the form does not legally commit you to claiming retrospective NHS Pension Scheme membership, you will only make that decision once you know the arrears of employee contributions due.

Looking After You Too: coaching and support 

Front-line primary care colleagues involved in the delivery of primary care services, both clinical and non-clinical, are facing unprecedented challenges through COVID-19. We are keen to ensure all staff delivering frontline primary care services feel supported to maintain their psychological well being during this time, enabling them to maintain the delivery of frontline primary care.

Individual coaching support is available with a highly skilled and experienced coach. This will be a space for you to offload the demands of whatever you are experiencing and be supported in developing practical strategies for dealing with this. It might be that through a one-off conversation you have all the strategies you need to cope with your situation and stay well. Or you might find a few sessions helpful. It is all led by you.

Click here to learn more and register for Looking After You Too

Our new #LookingAfterYourTeam coaching offer is also available for those who lead, manage or organise a team or group in primary care. If you have already taken the first steps to look after yourself, you may find this offer to support your teams of interest. Find out more about #LookingAfterYourTeam.

All staff working in the delivery of primary care services. You will be either employed by the NHS or working with an NHS funded employer delivering an NHS funded primary care contract.

How does it work?

You can register and book a coaching session via the booking links. Sessions are available Mondays to Fridays between 8:00am – 10:00pm and on Saturdays and Sundays between 10:00am – 6:00pm. The first session will last up to 45 minutes. The sessions will be delivered virtually, preferably via a video platform, but telephone appointments are also available. Subsequent sessions will be dependent on the conversation between you and your coach.  Your coach might signpost you on to further support if they think this might be helpful. You may receive follow-up emails to support you in maintaining your wellness once your coaching sessions have finished.

Read about how this dental practitioner, who works in a community dental service during COVID-19 ,and how Looking After You Too coaching helped them.

Reminder: PPE reimbursement claims close in February

Practices can claim for PPE purchased between 27 February and 31 December 2020 for use in the delivery of NHS dental services as a result of COVID-19 infection control guidance. Dental practices will be able to claim for this personal protective equipment (PPE) up to 20 February 2021, which means no claims will be accepted after 20 February 2021. 

Further detail is in the dental appendix to the national guidance.

Protecting yourself and others from COVID-19 vaccine cons 

The NHS has teamed up with law enforcement and security agencies to warn the public not to fall victim to con men trying to exploit the coronavirus vaccine campaign.

​​​​Con artists have also been known to use telephone calls to extract payments or bank details which can then be sold to organised criminal gangs or used to order and pay for goods online.

Joint advice from the NHS and law enforcement agencies on protecting yourself from COVID-19 cons

In the UK, coronavirus vaccines will only be available via the National Health Services of England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. You can be contacted by us, your employer, a GP surgery or pharmacy local to you, to receive your vaccine. Remember, the vaccine is free of charge. At no point will you be asked to pay.

• We will never ask you for your bank account or card details.
• We will never ask you for your PIN or banking password.
• We will never arrive unannounced at your home to administer the vaccine.
• We will never ask you to prove your identity by sending copies of personal documents such as your passport, driving licence, bills or pay slips.

If you receive a call you believe to be fraudulent, hang up. If you are suspicious about an email you have received, forward it to report@phishing.gov.uk. Suspicious text messages should be forwarded to the number 7726 which is free of charge.

Click on our graphic below to spread the word - the vaccine will always be free on the NHS

By word of mouth ... the colleagues we're all talking about!

We're proud to see how NHS practices, mixed practices, those like High Street Dental Practice (a predominantly private practice, with a NHS contract for children), all stepped up as one family during COVID-19.

"Over the past year whilst it has been daunting at times we are now all much better equipped with dealing with dental treatments and are very much used to enhanced PPE. All front line staff are now vaccinated and we are all very grateful for this.

As a practice, we have been quite lucky to have been able to clear our backlog of cases early on and are now focusing on preventative care. We are all looking forward to a world beyond covid!" 

High Street Dental team

Click the button above to email the Chief Dental Officer and nominate your colleagues for By Word of Mouth. Please include a bit of detail the  individual or team, a quote and a picture. 

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Previous NHS dentistry and oral health updates 

Previous bulletins can be accessed by clicking on the links below:

• Issue 1: 27 October
• Issue 2: 2 November
• Issue 3: 27 November 
• Issue 4: 10 December 
• Issue 5: 22 December 
• Issue 6: 30 December 
• Issue 7: 4 January
• Issue 8: 7 January
• Issue 9: 27 January

NHS primary care bulletin

The NHS primary care bulletin provides resources on health policy and practice and we encourage you to sign up for this, too. It is aimed at teams across general practice, dentistry, community pharmacy and optometry. 

A reminder of the latest COVID-19 advice and guidance 

Letters of preparedness to the profession 

During the course of the pandemic, we have regularly written formal letters to the NHS dental profession with important updates and information. They are 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 Wednesday 3 February 2021. 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 Wednesday 3 February 2021 and is online here.

COVID-19: infection prevention and control dental guidance

The guidance is an appendix to and should be read in conjunction with the national guidance on infection prevention and control for COVID-19 . You can read the general guidance and the specialist dental appendix online here.