Dental Urgent Care Helpline(s) across the South West

This notice is placed as a Prior Information Notice (PIN) to inform the market of NHS England South West's intention to recommission Dental Urgent Care Helplines within each of the Integrated Care Board (ICBs) regions below. 1. Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) 2. Devon There is also potential for the other ICBs in the South West to recommission the services in their areas 3. Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 4. Gloucestershire 5. Somerset 6. Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire 7. Dorset Please note that Devon and Cornwall ICBs are transitioning to form a 'cluster'; similarly BNSSG and Gloucestershire are forming a 'cluster'; and Somerset, Dorset and BSW are forming a cluster, ahead of statutory mergers taking formal effect, likely from April 2027. At this time, the Commissioners would like to understand the level of provider interest in delivering the services and invites interested parties to express an interest by completing a market engagement questionnaire. The aim of the Dental Urgent Care Helpline Service is to provide an accessible and equitable pathway for patients transferred from NHS 111 that do not have access to a dentist and require unscheduled urgent or non-urgent dental care within operational hours of the service. The Service shall operate as a secondary triage and booking service and will only accept patient contacts transferred from NHS 111 via agreed interoperability mechanisms. Direct public access to the Service is not available. The service will triage and assess all patients transferred against the national clinical guidance criteria for unscheduled urgent and non urgent dental care As defined in the Management of acute dental problems guidance produced by the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP), patients requiring unscheduled dental care can be categorised into 1 of the following 3 categories: • emergency unscheduled care (immediately life threatening and oral and dental conditions): patients who may require clinical triage by an appropriately trained clinical triage professional within 60 minutes and subsequent treatment within a timescale that is appropriate to the severity of the condition; • urgent unscheduled care: patients who may require clinical care within 24 hours or as soon as practically possible, unless the condition worsens; • non-urgent unscheduled care: patients requiring dental care within 7 days, unless the conditions worsens. The Service will: • prioritise patients based on clinical risk, vulnerability and access barriers and direct to the most appropriate service or offered proper and qualified advice from a General Dental Council (GDC) registered dental care professional. • Provide information about NHS dental services in the area • Provide appropriate advice and signposting for non urgent dental enquiries • Support effective utilisation of commissioned urgent dental capacity by booking patients into urgent care appointments. This will: • Reduce inappropriate emergency department attendance • Improve patient flow through urgent dental care pathways through the provision of access to unscheduled dental care and appropriate advice and information A draft service specification has been developed and the commissioner is seeking feedback from providers via a market engagement questionnaire and a market engagement event to help inform the final specification and commissioning strategy.