COVID-19: Update: Recent developments reported
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- Published: Wednesday, 22 April 2020 11:27
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The BDA has reported that they have had two virtual meetings recently with Health Minister Jo Churchill MP to discuss the establishment of the urgent dental centres in England. Chancellor has extended furlough scheme. Progress made on Urgent Treatment Centres in Wales.
To keep up to date with developments from the BDA, dentists should visit their Coronavirus update page[i], which is available to all whether or not they are members and is continuously revised.
BDA Meets with Health Minister
BDA Chair Mick Armstrong and CEO Martin Woodrow have had two meetings in recent days with Health Minister Jo Churchill to discuss the establishment of the urgent dental centres in England.
At the end of last week, there were in excess of 160 hubs up and running across England, with further centres planned in the coming days, but the BDA remains concerned about some local reports indicating that there have been ongoing delays in getting patient treatment started, due to various reasons including supply of personal protective equipment and fitting of masks.
Chancellor extends furlough scheme to end of June
HM Treasury has reported that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended by one month to reflect continuing social distancing measures. They say the move will allow firms from across UK to continue to protect millions of jobs. And the scheme will continue to be monitored to ensure people and businesses can get back to work as soon as it’s safe to do so to drive UK economic recovery.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said: “We’ve taken unprecedented action to support jobs and businesses through this period of uncertainty, including the UK-wide Job Retention Scheme. With the extension of the coronavirus lockdown measures yesterday, it is the right decision to extend the furlough scheme for a month to the end of June to provide clarity. It is vital for people’s livelihoods that the UK economy gets up and running again when it is safe to do so, and I will continue to review the scheme so it is supporting our recovery.
Progress reported on urgent dental centres in Wales
Urgent Dental Centres (UDCs) have now opened in each of the Health Boards in Wales, and are seeing patients with swelling, trauma and bleeding. COVID-19 E-Referrals are being used. This system means that general practices remain accessible to their patients to give appropriate advice and triage for dental emergencies. Patients without COVID-19 symptoms may still access their general practice for non-aerosol generating procedures, such as a simple dressing or extraction, should the three A’s not provide sufficient relief.
[i] https://bda.org/advice/Coronavirus/Pages/latest-updates.aspx
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