Recovery of NHS dentistry services

Your practice

• In which health board area is your practice located?
• What is your NHS patient list size?
• How many FTE dentists are employed by the practice?
• Do you provide NHS General Dental Services? y/n
• If yes –
  • Adults only
  • children only
  • both/
  • neither
• If no – why?
• Are you seeing the same number of NHS patients as you were pre-pandemic? (y/n/dk)
• If no, what are the main issues affecting your ability to provide NHS dental services at pre-pandemic service levels?
  • Staffing
  • Backlog in treatment due to pandemic
  • Ventilation/equipment
  • Other: please describe
• Are you confident that you see the full cross-section of your local population (i.e., from all SIMD levels of deprivation) (y/n/dk)
• If not, what do you think the barriers are?
  • Public health messaging and communication
  • Opening hours
  • Practice location
  • Other: please describe

Ventilation and other equipment

• Is your ventilation and dental equipment adequate to allow you to function at pre-pandemic levels?
• Did you apply for the available funding (£1500) to improve ventilation in your practice? (y/n/dk)
  • If yes, was the funding adequate to implement the ventilation improvements you required? (y/n/dk)
  • Has the funding enabled you to increase your capacity to see more NHS patients? (y/n/dk)
• If no, why did you not apply for the available funding to improve ventilation?
  • I did not require the ventilation equipment eligible for funding
  • I did not know that the funding was available
  • I was not eligible for the funding
  • The funding was not adequate to cover required expenditure
  • Other: explain
• Did you apply for the funding available for other equipment? (y/n/dk)
  • If yes, was the funding adequate to implement the improvements you required? (y/n/dk – with open response option)
  • Has the funding enabled you to increase your capacity to see more NHS patients? (y/n/dk – with open response option)
• If no, why did you not apply for funding for other equipment?
  • I did not require the equipment that was eligible for funding
  • I did not know that the funding was available
  • I was not eligible for the funding
  • The funding was not adequate to cover required expenditure
  • Other: explain

Impact of the pandemic

• Have you cleared the backlog of demand for NHS treatments that arose due to the pandemic? (y/n/dk)
• If not, how long will it take you to clear any backlog?
  • 0-3 months
  • 3-6 months
  • 6mths - 1 year
  • 1-2 years
  • 2 years +
• What if any lasting impact on treatment plans/remedial work/oral health required has resulted from the closure or reduction of services during the pandemic?
• Have you seen an increase in later stage oral cancers since the resumption of dental services? (y/n/dk)
• In your experience, how quickly are secondary care referrals seen in your health board area?
  • 2-6 weeks
  • 6-12 weeks
  • 12 – 18 weeks
  • more than 18 weeks
• Do you think Scotland has adequate provision in place to make dentistry services resilient to future pandemics in relation to the following?  
  • health protection measures y/n
  • equipment y/n and
  • infrastructure y/n
  • other

Staffing

• Have any dentists left the practice because of the pandemic and not returned? (y/n/dk)
• Have any other staff left the practice because of the pandemic and not returned? (y/n/dk)
• Have any dental staff retired from the practice early following the pandemic? (y/n/dk)
• Have any dental staff in the practice reduced their hours following the pandemic? (y/n/dk)
• Have you had any issues filling posts for dentists (y/n)
• If yes, what are they?
• Are there any issues with other staffing – dental nurses, hygienists, administrative staff that are barriers to recovering your NHS services to pre-pandemic levels?

Other issues

• Do you have any other comments about the recovery of NHS dentistry services following the COVID-19 pandemic?