Today saw the publication of the FGDP guidelines for Dentistry which may form the basis of the return to work for Dentistry in England.
This follows the announcement last week by high levels of Government that Dentistry would ‘return to work’ on the 8th June.
As has always been the case throughout this crisis (and in fact forever) the ‘devil is in the detail’.
The FGDP guidelines have probably tried their best to straddle the fence of all the problems that exist around the COVID-19 scenario.
The trouble with all of these guidelines and all the position statements and all the documents from all the organisations is to the average person in Primary Dental Care they seem almost unreadable and certainly impossible to interpret.
Because no one will write down what we ‘have to do’ and will only ‘guide us’ we have to use our own initiative but we are stuck in a position of trying to the best for our patients, the best for our team, the best for our business and the best for our family.
Sadly, these conflicting requirements pull us in entirely different directions at times and striking a healthy middle ground seems almost impossible.
It’s clear to all of us when reading the FGDP guidance that to reopen our Practices is to lose even more and greater substantial amounts of money as we try to keep our businesses afloat.
It’s also clear that we have to get through this phase in order to get to the other side but nobody is aware where the other side is because it depends upon a societal reduction and the level of the virus which might or might not emerge in the coming weeks and months.
Dentistry in England will return to normal when the threat level reduces to level 2 but level 2 may not come or it may not come for 18 months or it might be here by the end of June.
No one can run a business in that way, in fact no one can run a Health Care Service in that way and therefore the guidance, as helpful as they were intended to be provide us with really no help at all.
Even in part 5 of the guidance which related to the psychological support that is required for our teams and the possibility of providing confidential counselling for people who are struggling, are we given yet another burden as business owners and employers to try to navigate new areas of work that did not exist is March?
Now we will all be off to try and find an FFP2 fit tester who will be able to provide us with the masks with which we are fit tested even though throughout the crisis the Hospitals were able to modify their protocols to not fit test FFP2’s and just to continue to see patients.
Even though using High-Volume Aspiration (HVA) reduces aerosol spread by 90-98% we will still be required to wear a gown, we will still be required to have fit tested FFP2’s and we will still be required to have down time in our surgery which for many will put their businesses at risk.
We had hoped for better but sadly better never came.
We had hoped for braver but sadly it seems impossible to take a stance which meets the needs of all the stakeholders listed above.
For my sphere of work Private Dentistry is significantly affected and although that seems to be fairly irrelevant in the current circumstances as far as society goes if Private Dentistry is significantly damaged then NHS Dentistry will be overwhelmed and the Dental health of the nation will drop dramatically as one of the consequences of the pandemic.
Imagine if you will if all the private schools closed, imagine if you will if all the private hospitals closed, imagine (lord help us) if all the private lawyers who did not work within the legal aid and state system decided to close.
Over the past 20-30 years we have developed an Eco-system in health care which relies on both the NHS and the private service and the current crisis threatens to shatter that.
The implementation of ‘guidance’ is just another nail in the coffin.
Blog Post Number - 2386
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