CDO England’s COVID-19 webinar: exit strategy for dentistry will need to be agile to respond to second wave

That was one of the key messages in the latest webinar held last Friday (24 April) by Sarah Hurley, CDO England, and Matt Nelligan, director of Primary Care and System Transformation.

According to this second CDO webinar, ‘normal business’ is unlikely to return beyond the end of June.

But Sara Hurley said that NHS England is beginning to think about the opportunities as to how it might consider reintroducing elements of dentistry over and above urgent dental care in a safe and appropriate way.

This also has to be in accordance with guidance from Public Health England as ‘they shift on the issue of social distancing’.

She suggested this might involve the opening up of practices to offer a limited range of non-aerosol procedures ‘based on risk and the appropriate PPE’.

She added: ‘It might also involve the development of low risk or preventatively focused activity, including screening and advice related to wider health issues.’

Recognising the challenges to the profession and the disruption it causes with the cessation of high street dentistry, the CDO England paid tribute to the personal commitment of those dental professionals involved in the redeployment to 111 and UDCs amid sometimes unwarranted aggression from frustrated patients in pain that, she suggested, was often the ‘manifestation of the stress’.