RCSEd Dental Ambassadors on Covid-19 - Insights into the Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Department
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With the COVID-19 situation changing daily, Dental departments are constantly reviewing the latest guidance and adapting their work and safety measures to provide care for emergency patients.
We have been in contact with our Early Career Ambassador, Dr Alex Orchard, who is a Specialty Doctor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and learned what changes his department has adopted in response to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 outbreak.
How has the COVID-19 outbreak affected your department and patient treatments?
"I work in a District General Hospital in an Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Department and am fortunate to be surrounded by hard-working and inspiring colleagues and clinical leads who have helped us take action as early as possible in these challenging and unchartered times. Prior to the outbreak the majority of our services are providing outpatient care, day case surgery with general anaesthetia and supporting our larger Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery hub at a nearby Tertiary Hospital and our Accident and Emergency Department.
This has obviously had to undergo wholesale changes in a very short amount of time, at the same time primary care services including dentists and GPs are also undergoing unprecedented changes. As a result, for patients, accessing care for dental problems and oral and maxillofacial problems has been greatly changed. Elective operating has been suspended and we have systems in place to triage the remaining important care. Such is the demand for change to manage our services during this acute crisis, our department has implemented innovative ways to provide care and done so in a timescale that would have otherwise not been possible.
The rest of the hospital is also undergoing huge reconfiguration and rising to the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hospital education centre and staff are working flat out to provide us and other workers with ‘Up Skill Sessions’ on in-patient ward care skills like venepuncture, cannulation and resuscitation. We are preparing to be redeployed to other areas of the hospital to support our colleagues where needed and our incredible dental nurses have already been deployed to help on the wards."
What measures is your department taking to increase standards in care and hygiene?
"In order to reduce bringing patients to the hospital, we hold ‘virtual’ consultation clinics via both telephone and video which helps patient access care and advice and allows us to triage digitally via platforms like ‘NHS Attend Anywhere’. For a follow up patient suffering from facial trauma we were able to video consult and examine them and liaise with our hub to triage their need for surgical intervention. All of this, surgery aside, was managed ‘digitally’. Simpler steps taken in relation to care and hygiene, has been maintaining distance in the waiting room by spacing chairs. Elsewhere in the hospital departments and teams are relocating to try and maintain Hot and Cold zones."
How is the team adapting during the COVID-19 pandemic and what are the main priorities established during these difficult times?
"With an ever changing situation on a daily basis, our team is having to adapt all the time. To maintain cancer care, trauma care and care of dental abscesses is our priority. Some patients are contacting us from outside the usual referral pathways."
For anyone experiencing toothache or gum bleeding during the pandemic, Dr Alex Orchard recommends visiting this page for useful information on how to manage non-urgent tooth conditions at home.
