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/
Operational Guidance Vaccination of Frontline Health Social Care Workers 7 January 2021
