Friday 13 November 2020
15:25
Advice for practices re: mopping and infection control
In response to queries from practices, Public Health England have today confirmed that mopping the floors can be carried out
at the end of the session - as opposed to after each AGP - unless there is visible contamination on the floor.
In addition to this, we want to clarify that practices do not need to wipe down cupboards and units after non AGPs. Staff should continue to follow normal cleaning procedures as outlined in the HTM-01-05 guidance for non-AGPS.
15:15
Book a place for our oral cancer webinar
As part of
Mouth Cancer Action Month, we are hosting a webinar on the signs and symptoms of the early stages of oral cancer.
Saman Warnakulasuriya, who contributed to our
oral cancer toolkit, created in conjunction with Cancer Research UK, will be joined by Len D'Cruz to discuss detection, referral and the dento-legal aspects of diagnosis.
The aim of the webinar is to enable participants to carry out a thorough clinical examination on patients and be able to understand the criteria for urgent referral.
- Date and time: Wednesday 25 November at 19:00
(free for all members of the dental team, one-hour CPD) - Cost: Free for all members
- CPD: one hour CPD
Book a place on
Oral cancer – detection, referral and dento-legal aspects of diagnosis.
14:55
Oral cancer: a ticking time bomb?
Dentists play an essential role in spotting the signs of oral cancer. That's why, this
Mouth Cancer Action Month, we’re concerned about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on mouth cancer detection rates in the UK.
In the
most recent issue of BDJ In Practice, there is a package of essential content, freely available to all, tackling this topic. We highly recommend a read of:
10:20
Associates working for corporates
Recently we’ve been talking to some associates working for corporates about clauses in their agreements that are causing them concern. To help us understand how widely-held these issues are we've put together
a survey for associates working for corporates.
If you are an associate working for a corporate, please take two minutes to make your voice heard and share your views.
Thursday 12 November 2020
15:24
Parliament: Lords call on Minister to support dentists
This week in Parliament Health Minister Lord Bethell was
questioned by Members of the House of Lords on the provision of dental services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The short debate was secured by Baroness Walmsley, who is a Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dentistry and Oral Health to which the BDA provides secretariat.
We spoke to a wide range of Peers from across all the main political parties ahead of this debate about our members’ concerns. We were pleased to see many of them challenging the Minister about long waits for secondary dental care, dentists receiving priority access to a COVID vaccine, financial viability of dental practices and the need to exempt them from business rates, and echoing our
calls for capital funding for ventilation equipment to help bring down fallow times.
The Minister emphasized the Government’s commitment to the dental workforce and assured they were looking at ways to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on dental practices, including bringing in testing to help provide a safe environment for both staff and patients. We will continue to update you on our work on your behalf in Parliament.
14:45
Webinar: Dental materials and COVID-19
Book your place for our up-coming webinar on
dental materials and COVID-19 today. It will take place on Thursday 26 November at 19.30 - 20.30. Members can attend for free, non-members can attend for £50 and DCPs for £30. The webinar will:
- Help you understand the value of choosing the correct, high-quality material for a given clinical situation
- Outline the latest information on bonding to dentine and the survival of resin composite materials
- Evaluate which restoration types may adversely affect the lifespan of the restored tooth.
10:15
Oral cancer: a ticking time bomb?
Dentists play an essential role in spotting the signs of oral cancer. That's why, this Mouth Cancer Action month, we’re concerned about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown on mouth cancer detection rates in the UK.
In
the most recent issue of BDJ In Practice, David Westgarth focuses in on the issue:
“Recent BDA research suggests the number of missed appointments has exceeded the 14 million mark throughout lockdown in England alone. That's an awful lot of patients not having an oral cancer examination as part of their check-up, not to mention those who would be referred… With dentistry suffering from chronic access issues pre-pandemic - and the impact of lockdown still to fully reveal itself - COVID-19 could leave the profession with an oral cancer ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”
Wednesday 11 November 2020
17:12
Northern Ireland: Minister's response on private dentistry disappoints
We are bitterly disappointed by the
response we have received from Diane Dodds, Minister for the Economy today.
Minister Dodds was writing in reply to our letter of 7 October, our fourth
letter to Minister Dodds since March. In this latest letter we asked her categorically if she would agree to establish a grant scheme to support lost income from private dentistry to support mixed/private-oriented practitioners, as put forward to her in writing by Minister Swann.
Her reply fails to directly respond to the important issues we raised. No commitment is given towards providing a grant scheme to offset lost income from private dentistry. The Department's response also fails to provide any substantive comment on the stark findings of the Report conducted by the Office of CDO in England which we included with our letter, confirming that the risk of maintaining business continuity is highest for practices with a majority of revenue from private dental care, and which concludes that a robust and timely support package from government is recommended for dental practices.
This response from Department of the Economy provides none of those assurances required at this difficult time. We will continue to fight on behalf of all dentists regardless of their Health Service/private split and will keep you updated.
15:15
Peter Crooks' priorities as the BDA's new Deputy Chair
As well as being the Northern Ireland representative on the BDA board, in September, Peter Crooks was elected to be its Deputy Chair.
In a new blog he reflects on
the vast potential of his new role and what he hopes to achieve while in post.
13:35
Scotland: COVID-19 impacts dental education and training
How is dental education and training in Scotland being affected by the pandemic? Colin Levey of the University of Dundee has taken a look at
the challenges and opportunities facing dental education and training.
In a recent blog, he looks at the impact of increased supervision requirements and capacity constraints, as well as how redeployment may affect students and trainees, and broader impacts on other services.
“The capacity of open clinics is reduced due to social distancing and which, without some form of modification, cannot be used for AGPs. In some training centres, the capacity of waiting areas for patients is the limiting factor with staggered appointments necessary to maintain social distancing. Again, this has a negative impact on capacity for training and patient care.”
13:30
CDOs praise dentists' tireless efforts
The four Chief Dental Officers of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have written
a letter to dentists to thank them for
their professionalism and flexibility during the COVID-19 crisis and anticipating some of the challenges the profession is likely to face during the second wave.
“We would like to thank every single one of you for your tireless efforts to support patients. We are very proud of the response of the dental profession to this challenge.”
“In partnership with patients, we want dental professionals always to use their professional judgement to assess risk and to make sure people receive safe care, informed by the values and principles set out in our professional standards. The national SOPs remain your guides throughout this next phase of the pandemic and we expect all registrants to follow GDC guidance using their judgement in applying the principles of best practice to the situations they face.”
11:28
England: Watch webinar with CDO Sara Hurley
Sara Hurley, CDO for England held a webinar yesterday last week on how infection prevention control and the new fallow time requirements are due to work in dental settings. She was joined by representatives from Public Health England and deputy chief dental officers Eric Rooney and Jason Wong.
Catch up with the webinar now via Microsoft Teams.
10:15
Blanket ban on online junk food advertising
It's great news to see the government is finally moving towards an
outright ban on online advertising for foods high in fat, sugar, and salt. We have long campaigned for radical action the sale and marketing of sugary foods and backed the move in consultations the government held last year.
Research shows children are exposed to over 15 billion adverts for products high in fat, sugar and salt) online every year, and as children shift away from traditional media, the food industry is ploughing ever more resource into digital channels.
This is the right time to be pushing forward on this agenda. The pandemic is set to deepen already unacceptable oral health inequalities, as lockdown diets and the suspension of public health programmes take their toll, and with access to dental services remaining so limited.
We will set out how the government should approach a ban and look forward to updating you on further progress.
Tuesday 10 November 2020
15:25
Northern Ireland: Extensions welcomed
We welcome confirmation that the Department of Health has agreed to instruct the
Business Services Organisation to issue payments to dental contractors who have had their 2019/20 Non-Domestic Rates Reimbursement or CPDA claim rejected for being out of date, where they had submitted claims to BSO within 90 days of the SDR deadline.
We raised this issue earlier in the year, as applications had been delayed through no fault of practitioners following the lockdown earlier in the year. We are pleased to see this leniency being introduced.
14:55
Book a place for our oral cancer webinar
As part of
Mouth Cancer Action Month, we are hosting a webinar on the signs and symptoms of the early stages of oral cancer.
Saman Warnakulasuriya, who contributed to our
oral cancer toolkit, created in conjunction with Cancer Research UK, will be joined by Len D'Cruz to discuss detection, referral and the dento-legal aspects of diagnosis.
The aim of the webinar is to enable participants to carry out a thorough clinical examination on patients and be able to understand the criteria for urgent referral.
- Date and time: Wednesday 25 November at 19:00
(free for all members of the dental team, one-hour CPD) - Cost: Free for all members
- CPD: one hour CPD
Book a place on
Oral cancer – detection, referral and dento-legal aspects of diagnosis.
13:35
Wales: Health Inspectorate clarifies position on NHS supplied PPE
The Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) have clarified their
position with us regarding practices using NHS Wales supplied PPE, which have had expiry date concerns.
HIW have advised that:
- "All inspectors will be briefed on this topic and made aware that practices should not be judged negatively if FFP3 masks with expired used by dates are still in use"
- HIW have been assured that "the testing undertaken by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership in advance of making the decision to issue the stock of FFP3 masks was robust and sufficient to mitigate any risks associated with the potential deterioration of materials used in the construction of the masks themselves".
13:08
Members: Our updated COVID-19 toolkits are ready for download
We have updated our toolkits for
England
,
Wales
and
Scotland
to include the latest guidance from the recently revised standard operating procedures. Our toolkits are designed to support you and your teams practise as safely and efficiently as possible in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The toolkits have proven incredibly popular among members and have already been downloaded nearly 40,000 times.
The latest versions address your queries on:
- Aerosol generating procedures
- Fallow time
- Air changes
- Risk assessment for pregnant staff
- As well as advice on job retention and the workers support schemes.
Visit our
Returning to Work webpage to find all three toolkits plus further advice on practice management and risk assessment.
11:08
England: Asymptomatic testing of NHS staff
A
letter from the National Medical Director has confirmed that asymptomatic testing of all patient-facing NHS staff is due to start in some NHS trusts this week.
We understand that a full roll out should be in place by the end of next week. We believe that this covers secondary care staff but are seeking clarification in relation to primary care. We’ve asked for confirmation about coverage and will update you when we have more information.
09:40
COVID-19 vaccination
Yesterday’s encouraging news about Covid vaccination has again raised the question about prioritisation when vaccines do become available. For some time, we have been seeking assurances about the position of dentists and their teams alongside other healthcare workers. Alex Norris MP, the Shadow Minister responsible for dentistry, recently
asked a number of parliamentary questions, pressing for clarification. The answer back from Minister Jo Churchill was encouraging, saying in very broad terms that dentists would be included in the priority vaccination programme, but that any final decision will be based “on a detailed analysis of benefit-risk” at the time.
However, we continue to follow up on this important issue, seeking absolute clarity that all dentists, including those in fully private practice, and community dentists employed by non-NHS organisations, will definitely be considered ‘healthcare workers’ for this purpose. We will update you when we know more.
Monday 9 November 2020
14:46
Essential workers
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have repeatedly argued for the dental sector’s essential worker status to be confirmed. We reported last week that the CDO England had confirmed that NHS dental teams did indeed qualify for essential worker status. The following are the words used in the update from the CDO last Monday:
“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.”
Following that update, we have received a number of queries about the interpretation of those words and in particular whether it covers wholly private dental practices.
The BDA view is that private dentistry certainly should be afforded the same status as NHS dentistry. However, given the uncertainty around the issue, we have asked the Office of the CDO to confirm the position of private practices.
13:05
Raise awareness during Mouth Cancer Action Month
We are encouraging dentists and teams to support the
Oral Health Foundation’s Mouth Cancer Action campaign during November, by raising awareness of oral cancers with your patients.
New cases of mouth cancer have risen to
a record high of 8,722, which is an increase of 58% compared to ten years ago.
Early detection is the key to improved survival rates for those contracting oral cancers, and we are concerned that mouth cancer referrals have fallen since the beginning of lockdown. We have called on NHS England to share data on referrals for 2020, so we can see the true scale of the problem.
We are also concerned that school closure during the lockdown period have had an impact on the delivery of the HPV vaccination, which can protect against oral cancers. This is the first year the gender-neutral HPV vaccination programme is to include boys, something we lobbied for, and won, in 2018. NHS England have assured us that this programme is still a priority and at least one dose of the vaccine will be offered to all who are eligible.
We continue to campaign to raise awareness of oral cancers and the HPV vaccination and over the course of the next month we will have more content and information to offer you.
In the meantime, we encourage you to:
- Use our
free oral cancer toolkit, developed in partnership with Cancer Research UK, to help identify and refer cases (includes 3 hours of verifiable CPD)
- Support the
Oral Health Foundation’s campaign during November, use their resources and help raise awareness via social media
- Sign up for our
online oral cancer seminar - improving prospects for oral cancer patients (free for BDA members, one-hour verifiable CPD).
11:35
Patient communications and COVID-19
Now we are in the second national lockdown, patients understandably have questions about dental practices being open.
We’ve updated our
advice for patients page to help them understand the situation for our profession.
Members can download some communication assets to help your patients during this time:
Please feel free to direct your patients to:
bda.org/patients
11:20
Sign up to our up-coming webinars
Our popular series of COVID-19 webinars continues, with up-coming webinars on a variety of subjects. Don't miss out, register your place today:
