AQW 15396/17-22
Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry
Tabled Date: 25/02/2021
Answered On Date: 09/03/2021
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Health to detail his plans to (i) bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK and fund new and advanced personal protective equipment for dentists; and (ii) reduce the surgery fallow time of 10-30 minutes between patients after each Aerosol Generating Procedure.
Answer:
In Northern Ireland general dental practitioners have to date received over £3.7 million to cover the increased costs associated with enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE). Practice owners use this funding to purchase their preferred PPE from dental supply houses who also provide them with a wide range of non-PPE dental consumables. There is a wide variety of PPE available and not all types and styles are suitable for all practitioners. The ability of practitioners to select specific makes and models of masks in particular is viewed as an advantage of the Northern Ireland arrangements. The Health and Social Care Board regularly monitors the availability and cost of commercially available PPE and, in general, over the last six months availability has improved and costs have come down. In late June 2020, I provided £1 million worth of funding for the Business Services Organisation (BSO) to source and distribute PPE to dental practices. At the time the BSO could not source the very large quantities of level II PPE required by dental practices and while the situation has improved to some extent, it remains challenging for the BSO to procure significant quantities of level II PPE over and above that required by the Health and Social Care Trusts. The distribution of PPE to dental practices in 2020 was a logistically complex exercise with deliveries taking several weeks to complete. Additionally, the cost of delivering the PEE was significant and not all practitioners were happy with the specific items that were provided. Surprisingly, practices sourcing their own PPE are able to do so at very competitive prices, sometimes lower than those attainable by BSO. In relation to the fallow time, Northern Ireland follows the same expert guidance as the rest of the UK. This is applied consistently across primary care and secondary care settings as well as by health service and private care providers. The current approach to the fallow time has been endorsed by the Northern Ireland General Dental Services Re-establishment Group, which is made up of representatives from the Department of Health, the Health and Social Care Board and the British Dental Association. The national representative groups for dental nurses, dental hygienists and dental therapists all support the current approach to the fallow time. The single most important determinant in the duration of the fallow time is surgery ventilation. Accordingly, I have recently approved a £1.5 million grant scheme for dental practices to improve practice ventilation and undertake other measures which will lead to increased patient throughput. I trust that the above is useful.
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