Dentists face huge challenge as surgeries reopen during coronavirus crisis
Only a third of dental practices in the West Midlands will be reopening today – as dentists reveal that getting back into business has proved a “huge challenge”.
The Government announced that dentists would be reopening across the nation today – but medical experts have warned people to expect a “skeleton service” as many practices are not ready to go back to life before Covid-19.
A poll for the British Dental Association shows that just over a third of practices across the West Midlands will re-open today, at a fraction of their pre-pandemic capacity.
The majority – 64 per cent of 229 questioned – of dental practices estimate they will be able to treat less than quarter of the patient numbers they saw before lockdown.
Barely 11 per cent are in position to offer a full range of treatment, and only 37 per cent have PPE to hand to provide face-to-face care.
Dentists have also indicated other barriers with a high impact on their plans for reopening, with three quarters of practices facing emerging from cash flow problems, nearly half dealing with difficulties getting practices ready for social distancing, and a third battling with access to childcare – where failure to offer necessary clarity on their key worker status has seen children turned away from schools and nurseries.
Dr Jonathan Allsopp, who runs Allsopp Dental in Bridge street, Walsall, said opening was a “huge challenge”.
He admitted that his team would only be able to see about a third of the patients per day they were used to seeing before lockdown – in a bid to keep staff and patients safe.
He said: “Hundreds of our patients were midway through normal dental and orthodontic courses of treatment when lockdown arrived. Others have developed serious problems since.
“My team desperately want to help them, but we’re in uncharted territory.
“Our practice treated up to 140 patients on one of our longer busier days before this pandemic.
“Now we can see about 50.
“Getting the right PPE and putting social distancing in place in a dental practice is a huge challenge.
“The safety of our patients and our staff remains our top priority.”
Neel Barchha, dentist at Willows Dental in Wombourne, said it was going to be tricky to run his dental practice efficiently post-lockdown.
He said: “At the start of lockdown we were told to close but we’ve been campaigning for a while to reopen because we’ve been inundated with people in pain.
“The first time we heard about reopening was the same time as the public about 10 days before.
“So we had 10 days to get ready. As well as that we have had regulatory bodies who have all given us different guidelines on how to reopen. The issue is a lot of practices don’t have capabilities to run the efficient service they had before – so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens.
“It’s going to be quite tricky to run efficiently.
“We’ve outlined new measures for our patients, such as waiting in the car before they come in.
“The main thing is how long we have to wait between surgery times to allow the aerosols to clear the room. It’s not going to be the same but we’d ask patients to just bear with us – we’re doing the best we can.”
British Dental Association chairman Mick Armstrong said: “Those expecting dentistry to magically return today will find only a skeleton service
“Practices reopening across the West Midlands now face fewer patients and higher costs and will struggle to meet demand.
“Dentists returning to work still lack the support offered to our neighbours on the high street, and even clarity on key worker status when it comes to childcare. Ministers must change tack if dentistry is going to survive the new normal.”
While more than 90 per cent of practices expect to reopen to some level by the end of June, the BDA has said major constraints will remain on the service.
