DH Confirms No Free Flu Vaccine For Dental Teams
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- Published: Thursday, 24 September 2020 14:22
- Written by Paul Felton
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NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have failed to offer a reason as to why NHS dentists and staff in England are to be denied free access to flu jabs this winter.
A letter addressed to ‘All NHS frontline workers’ was erroneously sent out to every NHS dentist in England last week. The letter strongly urged frontline workers to take up the offer of free vaccination in order to “protect ourselves, our teams and patients.” The letter pointed out that “This is anything but a typical year due to the potential impact of flu and COVID-19 circulating at the same time.” The letter emphasised “As we all know, flu can have serious and even fatal consequences, especially for our most vulnerable patient, such as young children, pregnant women and the elderly.”
After the letter was mistakenly sent to dental practitioners, it was reported that dental staff had not been included in the free vaccination programme since they were not recognised by the government as ‘key workers.’ NHS England had reportedly confirmed to the British Dental Association that dentists and their staff in England would not be included in the free flu vaccine programme this year.
GDPUK approached NHS England for the reason behind the decision to exclude dentists and staff from the free flu vaccine scheme. We asked for the rationale behind this decision. Despite being responsible for sending out the letter to frontline workers, a spokesman for NHS England said the “DHSC is looking after the flu vaccine so they’ll be able to respond.”
No Rationale For Decision Offered
We asked the Department of Health and Social Care for the rationale behind the exclusion of dental staff. We put it to the DHSC that because of the restriction placed on NHS dentists with regard to lengthy fallow times and that NHS dentists are currently effectively barred from performing routine dentistry at their normal rates - “A tacit recognition that they are in the ‘frontline’ during the pandemic.” We asked if the DHSC could explain the contradiction.
A spokesperson for the DHSC failed to explain why dental staff were excluded. The DHSC merely provided ‘background’ which effectively confirmed that general practice dentistry was to be excluded from free vaccinations.
The statement, released late on Wednesday, read: “Responsibility for offering a free flu vaccination to frontline health care workers rests with their employers, as part of their occupational health responsibility.
It is recommended that NHS independent contractors, which include dentists, offer vaccination to their employed staff, and responsibility for this lies with employers as above.
Dentists who are classified as being in an ‘at-risk’ group will be eligible for a free flu vaccine through their GP or local pharmacists.”
The statement did point out that (despite not carrying out clinical procedures), “All frontline social care workers are also eligible for free flu vaccinations through their GP or local pharmacy. NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) provide this complementary scheme to improve access for social care workers.”
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