Dental Services

Dental Services in NHS Ayrshire and Arran – Team work!

Written by Karen Parker – Assistant Dental Services Manager, on behalf of the Dental Management Team – Public Dental Service, NHS Ayrshire & Arran

 Imagine a world where uncertainty was the only thing we could rely on.  Where health care services are turned upside down and what was once ‘the norm’ becomes ‘the not’.  This is precisely the picture we could all paint with great detail amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, where change can and will occur on an almost daily (and often hourly) basis.  Take this ever changing picture and apply it to the world of dentistry and suddenly, what was once delivered as General Dental Service and Public Dental Service has been swiftly transformed, with our ‘High Street’ Dental Teams forced to close for many months to protect the safety of staff and patients, and Urgent Dental Care Centres taking the place of routine Public Dental Service provision. 

From the emergence of the pandemic we have developed Green clinics in our satellite sites on Arran and Patna, with Green, Amber and Red clinics across our four Urgent Dental Care Centres in Ayr, Irvine Kilmarnock and Arran. This is made possible by following strict triage guidance for both high and low risk COVID-19 patients, and face-fit tested staff to enable the use of full PPE where necessary.  Process maps, crib sheets, flow charts and manuals to ensure effective service provision with staff and patient safety at the centre.  You name it. We have it.   The surgery, as we know it, has significantly evolved to ensure patient and staff safety at all costs.  But what of the cost to the wider dental service?  One might be forgiven for questioning how this affected our GDP colleagues, who for a considerable length of time had to close their practices, triaging their patients and signposting to the UDCCs where appropriate.  But the story doesn’t end there.  All Practices have now opened again, allowing Practitioners to treat their registered patients where possible.  The next chapter is one with such promise.  You want to keep reading. 

Like many challenges we face in society today, the pandemic has brought with it opportunity for joining forces in a way we could not have anticipated.  Where previously PDS and GDS have, to a large extent, worked in silos, we have come together to provide a remarkable service – GDP and PDS colleagues side by side, triaging and treating patients seven days a week across the three UDCCs.  Ensuring those who need urgent care are, in most cases, seen within 24 hours.  The benefits of such a partnership are invaluable and the cooperation between services doesn’t stop there.  We have Childsmile and Oral Health Improvement Teams reassigned to crucial roles from administrative support within District Nursing, to working alongside the Test and Protect Team.  This only further demonstrates the real shift in ‘working within professional boundaries’ to one which sees people rallying to provide vital services for staff and patients alike.

Let’s look at the outcomes of this mutually beneficial way of working.  From the softer side you have the strengthened relationships and compassionate approach to provision of urgent dental services in a time of crisis.  This also applies to the relationships established across services within the Organisation who, if it were not for the current pandemic, would never have crossed paths.  You drill down further and you begin to see lightbulbs ‘switching on’ where once was a lack of knowledge around services and ‘what we were all about’ to a visible respect for one another and what each of our teams can bring to patient care.  And what is most remarkable is the desire from staff to further build on this as we move forward – with a hope (and indeed certainty) of what we can be sure to experience across professional boundaries, now and in the future. 

COVID-19 has brought more challenges to dental service provision than could or perhaps ever will be documented.  Let’s rise to the ongoing challenges, learning from our shared experiences, and forging ahead, bringing about a new vision and future for dental services. 

We are in it together. We are daring to succeed.