The South West London LDC held an open meeting for all dentists in the area on 10 June and was pleased to be joined by Charlotte Klass, Consultant in Dental Public Health, who presented on the paediatric dental pilot starting up in south west London.
Officially the pilot started in April having gone out for expressions of interest at the start of the year. Momentum was being up during the mobilization phase which had begun to start. The pilot will last through to September and hopefully longer, depending on results and impact.
The pilot is focussed on improving access to children and young people from deprived areas who have not seen a dentist in two years or more. There is an emphasis on community engagement and practices involved will have an engagement lead whose role is to liaise with local authorities, schools and GPs. Funding covers engagement, additional treatment and training.
There are six boroughs in south west London and six pilot sites have been identified, mostly based in lower socioeconomic areas. In addition to the paediatric pilot, the Sutton and Richmond dental practices participating in the pilot are aiming to develop a diabetes referral pathway to facilitate access for patients from co-located GP practices.
The LDC will be involved in the pilot meetings to support engagement with practices and will work to ensure clear lines of referrals between practices should community outreach not generate the activity expected. There will also be a pathway and link between the pilot sites and out of hours and urgent dental services.
The full service specification for the paediatric dental pilot is available here.
