Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including dental professionals on the list of people eligible for early covid-19 vaccination.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) consists of independent experts who advise the Government on which vaccine/s the United Kingdom should use, including prioritisation at a population level. For the first phase, the JVCI has advised that the vaccine be given to care home residents and staff, as well as frontline health and social care workers, then to the rest of the population in order of age and clinical risk factors. Included are those with underlying health conditions, which put them at higher risk of serious disease and mortality.

Frontline healthcare staff include those who have frequent face-to-face clinical contact with patients and who are directly involved in patient care in either secondary or primary care/community settings. This includes dentists, as well as non-clinical ancillary staff who may have social contact with patients but are not directly involved in patient care. Their advice states that this not only includes those working for the National Health Service, but also those in independent, voluntary, non-standard and community healthcare settings.