Oral and dental care in strong position despite delays

NHS Orkney’s chief executive has acknowledged that there is room for improvement when it comes to waiting times for specialist dental treatment in the county.

Gerry O’Brien has responded to figures highlighted by a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from Orkney MSP Liam McArthur, which showed that in 2018, the average waiting time for orthodontic dental treatment within NHS Orkney was 17.9 weeks, and for restorative treatment was 25.2 weeks.

Both Mr O’Brien and Orkney’s clinical dental lead, Jay Wragg, have assured the public that the county’s oral and dental care are both in a strong postition — despite these delays.

Mr Wragg said: “Specialist dental services in Orkney are generally good.

“In oral surgery and orthodontics, we use enhanced skilled practitioners, almost entirely funded from within the Public Dental Service (PDS) and employed as senior salaried dental officers.

“The senior salaried dental officers work in informal managed clinical networks with visiting consultants from NHS Grampian. The work they carry out is at an appropriate level, and the risks associated with lone working in sub-specialties are mitigated by the involvement of the visiting consultants.

“Other benefits to this model are those that relate to accessing treatment close to home. The inconvenience, expense and increased workload on other boards are all factors to weigh against another model.

“The service in restorative dentistry is less well developed, despite recent work to develop a similar structure to the other two disciplines. Recruitment of a senior officer in Restorative Dentistry is not straightforward.

“Workload prediction, based on perhaps 60 cases per year, indicates a part-time or ‘sessional’ appointment would be appropriate. Such part-time appointments are unlikely to be recruited to from off-island applicants and, while there are suitably qualified practitioners resident and working on the island that have the correct skill-set, the governance around employing (one of) them to see referrals from their own practice and, quite likely, themselves is problematic.”