Angus Walls, Director
Edinburgh Dental Institute
4th Floor Lauriston Building
Lauriston Place
Edinburgh EH3 9HA
Content of this update
- PCA and SDR 148
- Patient Communication
- National SoP
- IPC guidance
- PPE stock and usage
- SARS CoV2 vaccination program
Dear Colleagues,
I am sending you the most recent PCA from CDO in association with this letter, I must apologise, this should have come to you yesterday. As I am sure you are aware there was an announcement in Parliament recently that a full range of dental care would be available through NHS dental practices from the 1st November. This PCA underpins that statement.
PCA and SDR 148
The PCA gives you further information about the financial package that will be available from 1st November which includes an increase in support to 85% of prior income and a re-introduction of patient fees. This package will be subject to monitoring and as you will see after an initial period the level of NHS activity will be reviewed to determine the ongoing level of support. The current guidance is that achieving activity levels of a minimum of 20% of the prior year will result in ongoing support at this level. If NHS activity falls below that without extenuating circumstances then the level of NHS Support will be reduced going forward.
Patient Communication Letter I am very conscious that you will be having difficult conversations with your patients with regard to their expectations from 1st November after the announcements in Parliament. The Chief Dental Officer is working on a short film explaining what services are available for the public which will be on NHS Inform and You Tube. Dentistry will also be included in a mail drop to every household in Scotland as part of a primary care communication exercise.
NHSL is trying to get further television coverage about going forward but to assist you in communication with your patients I append a letter from me that I would be content is sent to any or all of your patients to explain the current situation.
National SoP
You have all worked to develop SoPs for safe working in practice but the Government and CDO are aware that there has been some variation in advice across Scotland. As a
consequence a National SoP has been developed for you guidance. This is available through the “Scottish Dental” website at https://www.scottishdental.org/remobilisation-of-nhs-dental-services-phase-4 this is intended for guidance and also as a resource to provide a single point for all the relevant information.
IPC guidance
You should all be aware of the recent 4-nations document about infection prevention and control. Again this document is also available from the “Scottish Dental” website and now formally categorise dental activity into three streams in terms of disease risk. This is now the formal HPS guidance on Infection Prevention and Control in relation to dental surgeries.
PPE stock and Usage
Paul Cushley recently sent a letter to all contractors about PPE supplies and I append again for your information
SARS CoV2 vaccination program
As I am sure you are aware there have been international efforts to develop a vaccine for SARS CoV2. These now seem to be coming to a point where 2 effective vaccines have been developed and will need to be delivered to the population. I am writing to remind you that dentists and their teams are part of the workforce who will be able to support this. Over the next few weeks there will be communications from NHSL to all contractors seeking expressions of interest in the first instance and I understand that there will be resources made available shortly from NES to support members of the dental team who wish to be part of this activity. I will update you when I get any further information.
As ever we are living and working in interesting times and I would like to thank you all for your ongoing support and care for the patients who rely on you for their dental health.
With all my best
Angus Walls
Director of Dentistry NHS Lothian
