Hampshire and IOW LDC
11.01.21
Very recently the LDC posted the following:
PHE letter and consent form for Health Care Worker Covid-19 vaccination
And a CQC Covid-19 update was posted on the 8th January 2021
This can be found here:
https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKCQC/bulletins/2b4d85d
As frontline healthcare professionals, it is important that you attend for vaccination when you are called by the NHS.
Please do not contact the NHS they will contact you.
However, the practice will need to provide some information such as the number of people eligible for the vaccine and those dental team members that have given their consent to attend for vaccination.
For further information please refer to the OCDO’s recent update 7th January 2021.
Addendum
15.01.21
The LDC is aware that there is some confusion surrounding the PHE’s ‘Covering letter for consent form for Health Care staff’ and the Consent Form.
The LDC’s understanding is that the form is for a practice’s internal review of those members of the dental team who are/are not prepared to give their consent to be vaccinated. So please return the form to your contract provider or their representative within the practice.
In the most recent Dear Colleague letter from the NHS SE Regional Team (14.01.21) [email protected] titled ‘Critical Worker Status and Covid-19 Vaccinations’ (see below) it stated that dental professionals and their teams are being prioritised for vaccination. It advised that you do not need to contact the NHS as the NHS will contact you.
Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are leading on the roll out of the national immunisation programme and not NHSE/I. CQC will provide the ICSs with your dental practice contact information as they hold details of all practices (including private) within their area.
However, this may take a while for CQC to carry this out, so in the interim NHSE&I have provided the ICSs with the all the contact information that they hold.
ICSs will take a different approach when local circumstances merit such consideration and dependant on how quickly additional vaccination hubs can be set up.
PLEASE NOTE
Most vaccination hubs require healthcare staff to provide photographic work ID and therefore you will need the critical worker letter as well as an accompanying letter (stating that you are employed/engaged as a critical front line worker) provided by your contract provider and a copy of the Dear Colleague letter (below)
You will also need to take some form of photographic ID such as your driving licence or your passport.
Dear colleague
As you are aware from the NHS dentistry oral health bulletin of 4.1.21, dental practice staff are critical workers (sometimes referred to as key workers) but we hear that some have experienced difficulty in securing school placements as some schools do not recognise this. We attach a letter for you to share with all your staff and performers (this should include agency staff and locums); when sharing please also provide them with a letter on your practice headed paper giving their name and confirming that they are employed/engaged by the practice to support the delivery of essential healthcare services and that as confirmed in the accompanying letter from NHS England and NHS Improvement they are a critical worker.
As you are also aware from communication from the BSA and the NHS dentistry and oral health bulletin of 7.1.21, dental professionals and their teams are now being prioritised for a Covid-19 vaccine. The BSA communication and the NHS dentistry and oral health bulletin followed publication of the attached operational guidance which includes a Standard Operating Procedure for vaccination teams and vaccination hubs to work to. It also advised that you do not need to contact the NHS and the NHS will contact you; many have contacted the dental team, their LDCs and others to enquire how they can receive this. Integrated Care Systems (ICS’s) are leading on the roll out of the national programme and not NHSE/I, we have been advised the national plan is for the CQC to provide ICS’s with contact details of all dental services in their area, as this will include both NHS and private practices and clinical dental technicians. ICS’s may take a different approach depending on local circumstances and the speed at which they will be able to roll out vaccinations of frontline staff will differ depending on how quickly they are able to set up additional vaccination hubs. However, this will take time for the CQC to do and so as an interim process we have provided the ICS’s with contact details of all NHS practices in their System and as much information as we hold on private practices in their System, we unfortunately do not hold any information on clinical dental technicians. We have given this information with the caveat that while we are confident on NHS practice information, they will need to carefully cross reference with details the CQC subsequently provide to ensure no frontline staff are omitted.
The vaccination teams are working as quickly as they can in setting up additional vaccination hubs at the same time as arranging vaccinations for care home residents and staff that are in priority 1. They will contact all frontline healthcare staff as quickly as possible but there are a large number to contact as and so we respectfully ask on their behalf that you follow the advice and do not contact the NHS and wait for the ICS vaccination team or vaccination hub to contact you.
We are aware that most vaccination hubs require healthcare staff that attend to provide photographic work ID and so we have advised the ICS vaccination teams that many dental teams will not have this have asked that where this is the case they do not turn those individuals away. The attached critical worker letter as well as the accompanying letter you will be providing each team member should be taken to the vaccination appointment and where individuals have a passport or driving licence with their photo they should also take this. Despite our advice that many dental teams will not have photographic work ID, as there will be a large number of vaccination hubs and an even larger number of individuals volunteering in these to deliver the vaccine, it is possible that this message may not reach all and so we advise that you also provide all staff/performers with a copy of this email that they can keep with the letter from us confirming critical worker status and letter from practices confirming they are employed/engaged so that if necessary they can share with the administrative teams working in the vaccination hubs that will check them in.
If some of this email was unknown to you as you are not signed up to receive the NHS dentistry and oral health bulletin we again encourage you to do this as that is now the main communication cascade from NHSE/I and we will not routinely cascade the messages contained with this. You can sign up using the following link https://www.england.nhs.uk/email-bulletins/dentistry-oral-health-update/
Kind regards
The Dental Team
NHS England and NHS Improvement – South East Region
Please send all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests or complaints to [email protected] or tel: 0300 311 2233 or NHS England, PO Box 16738, Redditch, B97 9PT
w: www.england.nhs.uk and www.improvement.nhs.uk
This email is intended only for use by the named addressee. It may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you should contact us immediately and should not disclose, use or rely on this email. We do not accept any liability arising from a third party taking action, or refraining from taking action, on the basis of information contained in this email. Thank you.
Operational Guidance Vaccination of Frontline Health Social Care Workers- 7 January 2021-3
K Percival
Hon Sec
H&IOW LDC
