Friday 19 March 2021
17:19
England: Ministers must act on shameful findings
We have called on ministers to act on the
latest report from Public Health England which reveals the shocking oral health gap between rich and poor. We believe that without dedicated action from government, inequalities will widen as a result of the COVID pandemic.
The report shows relative inequalities in the prevalence of tooth decay in five-year-old children in England increased from 2008 to 2019. We are deeply concerned that these inequalities will widen given the suspension of public health programmes over the last year, and ongoing difficulties accessing services.
Decay remains the number one reason for hospital admissions among young children, with official surveys indicating a tenfold difference in severity of tooth decay between the richest and most deprived communities. Consequently, we endorse PHE's policy recommendations on supervised brushing in early years settings and water fluoridation, both of which are clinically proven and cost-saving according to government's own modelling, based on the corresponding reduction in treatment need.
Dentist leaders have welcomed recent signs of support for both policies from the Department of Health, but stressed progress will only be possible if government is prepared to offer dedicated funding to support set-up and operating costs. The government's promise to consult on a national supervised brushing scheme for England by the end of 2020 has yet to materialise.
Our Chair, Eddie Crouch has said: "This
World Oral Health Day, we need deeds not words from government, with real support for practices and action on prevention. These programmes can pay for themselves, but until Ministers offer tangible commitments, we will not see progress."
16:29
Scotland: The Scottish Government must clarify comments on access
Today we have urged the Scottish Government to clarify comment from MSP Jeane Freeman that implied NHS dentistry should be available at pre-pandemic levels.
The Health and Sport Secretary stated today that: "NHS services… should be as available now as they were before the pandemic started." While all treatments are now available from NHS practices, the service is operating at a fraction of its former capacity to keep to strict infection control protocols to limit the spread of the virus.
The Scottish Government is currently only providing enough PPE to treat 10 patients per day (or five for Aerosol Generating Procedures involving high speed instruments) covering just 20-30% of pre-COVID patient numbers.
We have called for real commitment to restore pre-pandemic levels of dentistry. Unlike the Northern Irish and Welsh administrations, the Scottish Government has so far made no commitments to help practices invest in ventilation equipment, that can radically reduce or element the fallow time gaps between appointments, designed to reduce the spread of the virus. It is also seeking urgent interim funding to keep the service sustainable and help practices deal with the unprecedented backlog of patients.
Recent official data indicated that between September and November 2020 the number of adults seen by NHS dentists was around a third of the 2018-19 average. Furthermore, children and adults from the most deprived areas were less likely to have seen their dentist within the last two years than those from the least deprived areas (73.5% compared to 85.7% of children).
David McColl, Chair of our Scottish Dental Practice Committee stated:
"We are facing an unprecedented backlog, and the Scottish Government needs to provide funding and support to restore routine services. As it stands if check-ups recommenced today, we wouldn't be able to offer appointments for six months.
"Even before the pandemic Scotland's oral health inequalities were a national scandal. Now that gap looks set to widen, with public health programmes suspended and millions unable to access care."
15:55
Northern Ireland: Building better oral healthcare after COVID-19
Has "the new normal" provided an opportunity to address oral health inequalities in Northern Ireland?
Caroline Lappin, Chair of NI Council and Clinical Director for the CDS in the South Eastern Trust, address this question in her new blog "Building better healthcare after COVID-19. In her words:
"The pandemic put this vital work on hold, but I'm pleased to say it has now restarted... We must build on the work we'd started before the pandemic to create a new, and sustainable oral health vision for Northern Ireland, and the improved outcomes this will deliver."
14:34
World Oral Health day 20 March
This year's World Oral Health Day aims to inspire change by focusing on the importance of oral health for overall health.
The
campaign, which takes place on Saturday 20 March, delivers the message that good oral health can help you live a longer, healthier life. And we all know that it is a cause that needs action and attention.
In support of this message, we have the following resources available to you:
13:56
Scotland: New mental health resources for dentists and their teams
We are acutely aware of the growing impact the Coronavirus pandemic is having on our professional and personal lives. In light of this, we have been working with the Scottish Government to produce
mental health and wellbeing resources for dentists.
This compilation highlights guidance and wide support resources available for you as and when you may need it. It includes a range of UK-wide resources including the NHS Occupational Health Advice and Guidance Services which we secured, alongside the Scottish Dental Practice Committee, in 2018 to support dentists and their teams.
The service is delivered through the NHS Boards. If you're in
private practise or working outside of Scotland, please see our list of mental health and wellbeing resources available to you.
12:55
England: Update on Associates' pay
We recently met with the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England to raise the issue of associates who were not correctly paid, or at all, for the first three quarters of 2020-21.
We’ve been raising this issue since it first became apparent that a small, but significant, minority of practices were not doing the right thing and passing on payments as the NHS England guidance requires. At the time, we even went as far as to draft legislative proposals for the DHSC to use, but regrettably, this was not taken up at the time.
This now leaves us in the position where the DHSC can’t retrospectively put in place legislation to remedy this issue.
However, NHS England will be requiring providers to declare that they have met all of the requirements of their contractual payments for 2020-21, including the obligation to pay associates and other staff, as part of their end-of-year reconciliation.
Should practices make a false declaration, there is a possibility of an NHS Counter Fraud investigation into this. This provides practices with the opportunity to determine associate pay in advance of the end-of-year process.
Associates who have experienced an issue with their pay should report this through the BSA form. This should be done even if you have already raised an issue previously.
12:06
England and Wales census
Dentists seeing patients before 21 March could encourage their patients to complete the 2021 census. The census team is asking professionals who are in touch with hard-to-reach communities to offer a reminder. It could be either by making
assets available in your practices, or a very brief chat as you welcome the patient.
Thursday 18 March 2021
16:05
Regulatory changes regarding the import/export of human tissues and cells
Following EU Exit, regulatory changes came into effect in Great Britain
regarding the import or export of human tissues and cells. These changes will affect your practice if you send (export) or receive (import) human tissues or cells to/from the European Economic Area (EEA) for human application.
Does your practice buy human bone, pericardium or dermal tissue products from an EU company? If so, you will need an HTA licence from 1 July 2021. If you buy these products via a UK supplier, however, the UK supplier will be the importer and they will require the licence rather than you as a user.
14:45
Dental students: Share your stories
20% of all applications for financial support to the BDA Benevolent Fund come from dental students, and the charity supports students in hardship by offering means tested grants and mental health and wellbeing support.
Now the BDA Benevolent Fund are looking for students to attend its next virtual
Advisory Council meeting to share their experiences and perhaps provide guidance, support, and advice to the charity's Board of Trustees. They are particularly keen to understand how best to promote its work to dental students and so would welcome undergraduates, recent graduates and those that work at universities across the UK to participate. If you're a dental student, please consider attending on Saturday 24 April at 10.30. Your voice can make a difference.
14:00
Wales: Seeking confirmation on bonuses for dental teams
Today, we have written to Vaughan Gething MS to seek confirmation that the announced bonus for NHS and social care workers will include all dental teams, including those in the private sector.
We will keep you updated once we receive a reply.
12:38
Want to run a marathon to help dentists?
The
BDA Benevolent Fund helps dentists, dental students and their families in hardship with financial assistance as well as offering accessing mental health and wellbeing support. And this year they're looking for three runners to run the Virtual Virgin Money London Marathon on their behalf this year. It's a great way of raising awareness and much-needed funds. You'll have a full 24 hours to complete your 26.2 miles on Sunday 3 October and can do it anywhere in the country, so don't miss out!
If you are interested, please complete an
expression of interest form by 9am Monday 12 April. Runners will be shortlisted, chosen and notified by Friday 16 April.
11:22
Northern Ireland: Building better oral healthcare after COVID-19
In her recent blog, Chair of NI Council and Clinical Director for the CDS in the South Eastern Trust, Caroline Lappin tells us how the new normal gives us a unique opportunity to address inequalities in oral health in Northern Ireland.
"Way back in October 2019, BDA NI held a summit at Stormont, calling time on the importance of a new strategy for oral health provision in Northern Ireland. That was the culmination of a lot of campaigning and, with the subsequent announcement by the Department of Health to establish two new Oral Health Options groups - one to review child oral health provision, and the other for older people, this was a major step forward in the process of updating our 2007 oral health strategy for Northern Ireland.
The pandemic put this vital work on hold, but I'm pleased to say it has now restarted... We must build on the work we'd started before the pandemic to create a new, and sustainable oral health vision for Northern Ireland, and the improved outcomes this will deliver."
Wednesday 17 March 2021
16:24
Northern Ireland: Programme for Government 'Outcomes' approach welcomed
We have responded positively to the outcomes-based approach to public services, as set out in the draft Programme for Government Outcomes Framework. This aims to move away from a fixation with widget-counting, towards a system that focuses on improving outcomes for the public around 9 key priorities.
In our
consultation response, we recognise that the reforms needed in dentistry are aligned with the outcomes approach vision for government. We have repeated the importance of embedding a preventive approach in dentistry, underpinned by a fresh policy context for oral health as services are rebuilt.
14:44
Unconscious bias and dentistry
BDA board member and chair of our equality, diversity and inclusion work, Laura Cross, reflects on the issue of unconscious bias and gender discrimination in dentistry.
"Gender discrimination was a problem long before I became a dentist in 1990, and it continues to be a problem today. These days however it is more likely to be unspoken and unconscious."
"Outlawing discrimination hasn’t made it magically disappear. Unspoken and unconscious biases continue to affect dentists’ lives and hold back careers. We know from the powerful examples of sexism and bias shared during a recent FGDP webinar, for example, that women still face hurdles which their male colleagues do not."
12:34
Northern Ireland: Business support grants announced
The Department of Finance recently announced that businesses who received the £10k grant in the first lockdown will receive a further £5k. Those who receive it should remember to declare it in the next Health Service funding support application.
We have
written to the Minister of Finance to express our concern that larger practices – who have received very little support for the loss of private earnings – have again been excluded from this scheme. We will update you on these discussions when possible.
12:00
Have you ever worked as a prison dentist?
After five years of campaigning on behalf of prison dentists, we are now happy to confirm that
prison dentists are no longer excluded from the NHS pensions scheme. If you have ever worked as a prison dentist, you may have been incorrectly excluded from the NHS pensions scheme. Your contributions can now be included retrospectively.
For advice on what this change might mean for you, members can login to access our
prison pensions FAQs
or get in touch with our team on
prisonpensions@bda.org. Non-members can
join today to access our FAQs or reach out to the NHS BSA for more information.
10:04
England and Wales census
Dentists seeing patients before 21 March could encourage their patients to complete the 2021 census. The census team is asking professionals who are in touch with hard-to-reach communities to offer a reminder. It could be either by making
assets available in your practices, or a very brief chat as you welcome the patient.
09:20
Scotland: New mental health resources for dentists and their teams
We are acutely aware of the growing impact the Coronavirus pandemic is having on our professional and personal lives. In light of this, we have been working with the Scottish Government to produce a
mental health and wellbeing resource for dentists and their teams across Scotland.
This compilation highlights guidance and wide support resources available for you as and when you may need it. It includes a range of UK-wide resources including the NHS Occupational Health Advice and Guidance Services which we secured, alongside the Scottish Dental Practice Committee, in 2018 to support dentists and their teams. The service is delivered through the NHS Boards.
If you're in
private practise or working outside of Scotland, please see our list of mental health and wellbeing resources available to you.
Tuesday 16 March 2021
15:29
Scotland: New intermediate funding arrangements for NHS dentistry
NHS dental practices have today
received a letter from the Minister for Public Health and Sport outlining the Scottish Government's intermediate support funding arrangements for NHS dental services in the 2021/2022 financial year. We have been discussing sustainable financial support with the Scottish Government on a regular basis, and
highlighted our concerns to the Minister last week.
The Minister acknowledges that the COVID financial support measures that were put in place in March 2020 as an emergency response to the pandemic were not intended to be a long-term solution and now need to be updated. The Scottish Government aims to develop a medium-term funding model before introducing a whole-system reform/New Model of Care in the future.
The introduction of tiered financial support, which was due to be implemented this month has been pushed back due to the current lockdown, and the Scottish Government is undertaking survey work to inform policy on ventilation. More details will be provided by the Chief Dental Officer in the summer. We will update you as soon as we have more information.
13:35
Dentists can help to tackle vaccine misinformation
How can dentists help tackle vaccine misinformation and better engage the BAME community in this great national effort? A fifth-year dental student, Mustafa Nawaz Khan, tackles this question in his recent blog:
"So far, my team and I have given over 20,000 vaccinations at my local practice in the multi-cultural borough of Haringey, North London, but I'm very concerned that the vast majority of those coming in to be vaccinated are white. This is not representative of the demographic of the area and it's becoming clear that meeting BAME vaccination targets is one of the major challenges facing the vaccination programme nationally. However, I believe dentists can help."
12:05
Wales: NHS providers advised to check eDEN data
Following concerns raised from members, we have been in touch with the Business Service Authority regarding data available on the eDEN platform. We would urge all NHS providers to
log on to the platform to view their data and ensure it is correct. It is in everyone's best interests for this data to be as accurate as possible. We have also made the case for performers to have access and look forward to seeing this soon. We will keep you updated.
11:39
Webinar: Buying and selling dental practices after COVID-19
Are you planning to buy or sell a dental practice? If so,
register to attend our upcoming webinar which tells you everything you need to know about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the process. Taking place on Thursday 25 March 2021 at 19:30 - 20:30, the webinar is designed to help you:
Understand how COVID-19 has impacted the buying and selling market
Explore current diligence requirements for dental practice sales
Review the typical deal structures for dental practice acquisitions
Analyse current practice valuation trends.
09:35
BDJ's diversity and inclusion collection
All of the BDJ's recent content on
diversity and inclusion in dentistry is now available in one place. Take a look at their new collection for interesting articles on a range of topics, including these recent pieces from BDJ In Practice:
Monday 15 March 2021
16:12
England: Booking your COVID-19 vaccine online
Dentists and locums in England can still
book to receive their COVID-19 vaccination in a vaccination centre or community pharmacy through the NHS COVID-19 Vaccination Booking Service.
As part of the booking process, you will need to self-declare that you are a healthcare worker, the type of role/work you do and the name of your employer. You should also bring ID/proof of employment such as a staff ID badge, a recent payslip or recent letter/email from your employer (dated within the last three months).
Locum staff are also eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination. Locums should follow the above process, but verbally declare they are a locum healthcare worker. They should provide details of their locum agency, proof of General Dental Council registration and a letter of confirmation of locum status from their locum agency (dated within the last three months).
15:15
England: Data Security and Protection Toolkit deadline extended
Practices with an NHS contract are reminded that the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) should be completed every year. The date for completion is usually the end of March, however, this year the deadline has been extended to 30 June 2021.
For advice on completing the toolkit, members can login to access our updated step-by-step
guide to completing the DSPT
or get in touch with our advice team:
advice.enquiries@bda.org.
13:44
Next week's webinar on Practitioner Health support services
Register today for our lunchtime webinar on Friday 26 March at 12:30 - 13:30 to
improve your awareness of mental health and bereavement support available to dentists and trainees.
This will be a live interview-style webinar session with Professor Dame Clare Gerada, Medical Director of Practitioner Health, and Roz McMullan, Past BDA President and advocate for wellbeing in dentistry.
It will cover what you need to know about:
- Practitioner Health's self-referral support service for mental health issues
- How to support your team to know that it's okay to not be okay, and to seek professional help
- The other wellbeing and prevention resources available to you.
12:45
England: Seeking answers to Q1 targets
With just over two weeks until the start of the new financial year many of you are quite rightly asking about NHS contractual provisions in England from April. We know that practices need time to plan for the new quarter - particularly if there are going to be any changes to the current provisions. We have repeatedly made this point to NHS England.
Today, Shawn Charlwood, Chair of the General Dental Practice Committee, emailed members to update on our position.
In the email he wrote:
"It is immensely frustrating that once again we find ourselves this close to end of the quarter with no clear indication of what is coming next.
"The position that we continue to argue with NHS England is that Units of Dental Activity are fundamentally flawed and are not appropriate, particularly in current circumstances. The clinical focus is quite rightly on treating a backlog of NHS treatment and delivering urgent care. UDAs do not reward that care and a stretching UDA target simply focuses attention on routine treatment. That is not in the best interests of patients.
"The current 45% UDA target has been hugely challenging for many practices and as we move into 2021/22, in our view nothing has changed in terms of the most significant constraints on practices (including infection prevention and control measures) to enable them to deliver ever higher levels of treatment."
We are continuing to urge NHS England to clarify the position and will update you further when we can.
08:54
England: Free rapid tests for all businesses
Businesses in England are now able to sign up to the government’s free COVID-19 workplace testing programme.
Lateral flow tests were previously made available for NHS dental practices, however this announcement from the Department of Health and Social Care means that private practices (with a Companies House number) can now also access free rapid tests for regular workplace testing.
If you are interested in accessing these tests for your practice, you must register via
the online portal by 31 March 2021.
