Dental Nurses to Help Hospitals Fight Swine Flu
Dental nurses are set to be drafted into hospitals to help with the current swine flu pandemic if the numbers of swine flu sufferers continue to rise.
The dental nurses are said to be called into Tyneside hospital in order to relieve the strain on the current staff as swine flu continues to spread in Britain.
Although dental nurses are not trained or qualifies to treat medical conditions they are said to drafted in to help with other areas in the hospital such as telephone answering, and providing information to patients and other services.
Martin Fulford, a BDA spokesman said: “I think with the appropriate training it’s time for everyone to pull together.
“We need to look at the NHS in its entirety and prioritise our working practice. Nurses are trained Health Care professionals and would expect to help out in such an emergency.”
As dentists work as independent contractors and are not employed directly by the NHS the talks would be needed with dental business should any weaknesses in health care occur.
The swine flu pandemic is expected to peak in the autumn months and hospitals are bracing themselves early as the numbers of suffers continue to rise across Britain.
Dr Khaw, director of public health for North Tyneside Primary Care Trust said: “There’s no indication at the moment that we’ll get to a stage where we have to call on the whole health economy to help in our response.
“The nurses would receive specific training for any such work.”
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