Dental Services: Coronavirus
(asked on 21st April 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS dentistry services will continue to be available after the covid-19 outbreak.
This question was answered on 3rd June 2020
NHS dentistry was reorganised in late March along with other NHS primary care services to minimise face to face care to contain the spread of COVID-19 during the peak of the pandemic. Dentists were asked to suspend all routine treatment and instead to offer urgent advice and, where required, prescriptions for antibiotics by telephone. Urgent treatment was made available through urgent dental centres (UDCs) set up in each National Health Service regionAs of 25 May there are currently over 550 UDCs open. Patients are triaged into UDCs by their own dentistry or through NHS 111. The urgent dental centres are expected to provide, where urgently needed, the full range of dental treatment normally available on the NHSThe NHS England and Improvement guidance issued from the Chief Dental Officer on 25 March applied directly only to NHS dental care. When providing private care dentists should consider any advice or guidance issued by regulators, the relevant professional body, Chief Professional Officers, or the NHS, as appropriate. All official guidance should be considered in delivery of private or NHS treatment but guidance issued to the NHS is only binding for NHS care
NHS dentistry was reorganised in late March along with other NHS primary care services to minimise face to face care to contain the spread of COVID-19 during the peak of the pandemic. Dentists were asked to suspend all routine treatment and instead to offer urgent advice and, where required, prescriptions for antibiotics by telephone. Urgent treatment was made available through urgent dental centres (UDCs) set up in each National Health Service regionAs of 25 May there are currently over 550 UDCs open. Patients are triaged into UDCs by their own dentistry or through NHS 111. The urgent dental centres are expected to provide, where urgently needed, the full range of dental treatment normally available on the NHSThe NHS England and Improvement guidance issued from the Chief Dental Officer on 25 March applied directly only to NHS dental care. When providing private care dentists should consider any advice or guidance issued by regulators, the relevant professional body, Chief Professional Officers, or the NHS, as appropriate. All official guidance should be considered in delivery of private or NHS treatment but guidance issued to the NHS is only binding for NHS care
NHS England and Improvement announced on 28 May that NHS dentistry outside urgent care centres will begin to restart from 8 June with the aim of increasing levels of service as fast as is compatible with maximising safety. The letter to dentists setting this out is available at the following link: