IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/hepoli/v131y2023ics0168851023000635.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Utilising the dental workforce in England, United Kingdom, to optimise the response to COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Wilson, Gavin J
  • Wordley, Valerie
  • Grocock, Ryan
  • Shah, Sagar
  • Devalia, Urshla
  • Iricijan, Julija
  • Sayma, Meelad
  • Adelaja, Ini
  • MacLachlan, Greta
  • Ormond, Martyn
  • Hurley, Sara

Abstract

COVID-19 presents a unique and significant challenge to healthcare systems across the globe. Dental workforce redeployment, in England, during the response to Coronavirus (COVID-19), is the first reported national effort to redeploy a professional body into new clinical environments. The policy decision to facilitate redeployment of the dental workforce, in March 2020, by the Office of the Chief Dental Officer (OCDO), increased flexibility within workforce systems and allowed increasing demand on healthcare services to be managed safely and effectively. This paper outlines how this policy change was achieved via a multi-professional approach, mapping competencies of the dental workforce to high-priority areas of healthcare need. The dental workforce has a varied and often specialised skill set, offering expertise in infection prevention and control, airway management and often, behaviour management. These skills can be an important contribution to tackling a pandemic where expertise in these areas is vital. This increase in workforce supply allows healthcare systems to improve their surge response capabilities. Additionally, redeployment presents an opportunity to create greater and sustained collaboration between the medical and dental professions, leading to greater understanding of the contribution of oral health to wider medical wellbeing.

Suggested Citation

  • Wilson, Gavin J & Wordley, Valerie & Grocock, Ryan & Shah, Sagar & Devalia, Urshla & Iricijan, Julija & Sayma, Meelad & Adelaja, Ini & MacLachlan, Greta & Ormond, Martyn & Hurley, Sara, 2023. "Utilising the dental workforce in England, United Kingdom, to optimise the response to COVID-19," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:131:y:2023:i:c:s0168851023000635
    DOI: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2023.104760
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851023000635
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.healthpol.2023.104760?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas, John W. & Grindle, Merilee S., 1990. "After the decision: Implementing policy reforms in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(8), pages 1163-1181, August.
    2. Adams, Tracey L., 2004. "Inter-professional conflict and professionalization: dentistry and dental hygiene in Ontario," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 58(11), pages 2243-2252, June.
    3. Vincenzo Alfano & Salvatore Ercolano, 2020. "The Efficacy of Lockdown Against COVID-19: A Cross-Country Panel Analysis," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 509-517, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alfano, Vincenzo, 2024. "Unlocking the importance of perceived governance: The impact on COVID-19 in NUTS-2 European regions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 343(C).
    2. Gebka, Bartosz & Kanungo, Rama Prasad & Wildman, John, 2024. "The transition from COVID-19 infections to deaths: Do governance quality and corruption affect it?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 235-253.
    3. McCourt, Willy, 2003. "Political Commitment to Reform: Civil Service Reform in Swaziland," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 1015-1031, June.
    4. Augustine Blay Arko, 2020. "Factors Influencing the Implementation of Agricultural Policy: A Case Study from Ghana’s Cocoa Diseases and Pests Control (CODAPEC) Program," Journal of Public Administration and Governance, Macrothink Institute, vol. 10(1), pages 262288-2622, December.
    5. Dupuy, Jules & Barnay, Thomas & Defebvre, Eric, 2024. "Clear as a bell? Policy stringency and elderly health during Covid-19," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    6. Thorsten Beck & Samuel Munzele Maimbo, 2013. "Financial Sector Development in Africa : Opportunities and Challenges," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11881.
    7. Caixia Wang & Huijie Li, 2022. "Public Compliance Matters in Evidence-Based Public Health Policy: Evidence from Evaluating Social Distancing in the First Wave of COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-13, March.
    8. Sahn, David E. & Dorosh, Paul & Younger, Stephen, 1996. "Exchange rate, fiscal and agricultural policies in Africa: Does adjustment hurt the poor?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 719-747, April.
    9. Vincenzo Alfano & Salvatore Ercolano, 2022. "Stay at Home! Governance Quality and Effectiveness of Lockdown," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 101-123, January.
    10. Gupte, Jaideep & Longhurst, Richard, 2019. "How do the state’s organisational capacities at the micro- and macro-levels influence agriculture-nutrition linkages in fragile contexts?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 74-83.
    11. Iloanusi, Ogechukwu & Ross, Arun, 2021. "Leveraging weather data for forecasting cases-to-mortality rates due to COVID-19," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    12. Dunham, David & Kelegam, Saman, 1997. "Does leadership matter in the economic reform process? Liberalization and governance in Sri Lanka, 1989-1993," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 179-190, February.
    13. Kitchener, Martin & Mertz, Elizabeth, 2012. "Professional projects and institutional change in healthcare: The case of American dentistry," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(3), pages 372-380.
    14. Jayne, T. S. & Govereh, J. & Mwanaumo, A. & Nyoro, J. K. & Chapoto, A., 2002. "False Promise or False Premise? The Experience of Food and Input Market Reform in Eastern and Southern Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1967-1985, November.
    15. Qiang Fu & Chun-Ping Chang, 2021. "How Do Pandemics Affect Government Expenditures?," Asian Economics Letters, Asia-Pacific Applied Economics Association, vol. 2(1), pages 1-5.
    16. McTigue, Clare & Monios, Jason & Rye, Tom, 2018. "Identifying barriers to implementation of local transport policy: An analysis of bus policy in Great Britain," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 133-143.
    17. Vincenzo Alfano, 2022. "Work ethics, stay-at-home measures and COVID-19 diffusion," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 23(5), pages 893-901, July.
    18. Lucas Hafemann, 2021. "The Nexus between lockdown Shocks and Economic Uncertainty: Empirical Evidence from a VAR model," MAGKS Papers on Economics 202132, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    19. Vincenzo Alfano & Salvatore Ercolano & Gaetano Vecchione, 2020. "Religious Attendance and Covid-19. Evidences from Italian Regions," CESifo Working Paper Series 8596, CESifo.
    20. López-Mendoza, Héctor & González-Álvarez, María A. & Montañés, Antonio, 2024. "Assessing the effectiveness of international government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:131:y:2023:i:c:s0168851023000635. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.