4 to 6 Oct,  ExCel London

This year, Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer, Janet Clarke and Eric Rooney, Deputy Chief Dental Officers are at the BDIA Dental Showcase to provide an update on the progress of dental reform.  Sara and her team have been working to raise the profile of oral health across government and at NHS England, ensuring that oral health is on their agenda.  

With the rise of the social prescribing model in the NHS and a move towards integrated, patient-centric health care, Sara recognises that innovations within the dental sector may be hindered by the constraints of existing regulation and legislation. Establishing the scope of dental services as part of an integrated health care system is essential for getting oral health into the care pathways.  

"We need to integrate, not isolate .”

Sara Hurley, Chief Dental Officer, NHS England

Eric Rooney, Deputy Chief Dental Officer, describes the prototype Dental Contract (prototyping began in 2016) as being, "A care pathway that is focused on prevention.” The prototype ensures that patients get a more comprehensive health assessment at the start of their patient journey.  Feedback from patients indicated that there is a lack of understanding about what patients will receive from the NHS.  Currently, there are 76 practices in the prototype system.  These practices have performed extremely well in the areas of patient experience and safety, with all practices receiving approval ratings of above 90%. Evidence and evaluation have shown that there is some concern from participants in the prototype scheme that progress is being achieved at additional cost to the practices.  The Office of Chief Dental Officer (OCDO) are currently investigating the issues that have been presented. 

Janet Clarke, Deputy Chief Dental Officer, illustrated how the OCDO are innovating their processes to benefit the quality improvement programme.  The recent Urgent Dental Care standard was informed by wider involvement from both patients, dentists and commissioners.  An initial workshop with patients, the public, and representative groups, allowed the OCDO to gain an understanding of the public perception of urgent care and what kind of waiting times are expected.  This was followed up with a second workshop for dentists and commissioners, where the patient feedback was presented.  The commissioning standard will be published later this year.  Janet highlighted that the OCDO aim to provide standards that are, "Consistent for patients and based on what patients have told us about what they want."

A commissioning standard for Vulnerable Adults is in gestation and is due in 2019.  The OCDO team hope that, with this new approach, innovative commissioning will come out of this process. 

The national campaign, Dental Check by One (DCBy1), by the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry, is a response to statistics that 1 in 8 three year old children have visible dental decay.  As this is preventable, the campaign aims to ensure that children see a dentist from the time that their first teeth start to come through (usually six months). 

Sara Hurley reported that the DCBy1 campaign has proved extremely successful, with 102,000 children having received dental check-ups since the start of the campaign.  Claire Stevens, Vice President of BSPD, highlighted feedback received at the start of the campaign indicating that GDPs wouldn't come on board.  However, this has been shown to have been completely inaccurate, as has been evidenced by the huge support of the DCBy1 campaign by GDPs.

Today, the Maltings Dental Practice, based in Grantham, are being recognised for their innovative approach to establish DCBy1 as a core element of their service. The team were presented with a cheque of £1,000 by Nick Ledingham on behalf of NASDAL. 

Sara Hurley issued a call to action for dental practitioners to engage in the NHS England consultation for the long-term plan.  The consultation is an opportunity to contribute ideas, experiences and insights.  Find out more or contribute here: https://bit.ly/2PlV4DH

Post Contributor:

Caitriona Fitzsimons Digital Reporter