Update from CDO England on dental IPC, activity levels and funding
11 March 2022
The Chief Dental Officer for England, Sara Hurley, has provided an update on dental Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) procedures, activity levels and the £50m funding announced in January.
The update confirms that the current IPC requirements remain in place while work to ascertain how these may change in future is ongoing, with no changes following the Prime Minister’s ‘Living with COVID-19’ announcement last month. As such, the official position remains as per NHS England’s ‘Living with COVID-19’ update of 23rd February and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) guidance, last updated on 24th February, both of which can be viewed through the links below.
Addressing dental activity levels, the CDO has highlighted the latest NHS Digital statistics for the period of April-September of 2021, noting that over 3 million more courses of treatment were started and over 1.5 million more children were seen by a dentist.
On the £50m of additional dental funding announced in January, the update reminds the profession that the funding is available within this contractual year only and cannot be accrued into 2022/2023. While there has not been any official indication of how much of the funding has been taken up, the CDO continues to encourage dentists to contact their local commissioning team to take up the offer.
