The Society for Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry (SAAD) has released its proposed Framework Tool for Guidance of Commissioning NHS England Dental Conscious Sedation Services.
The document has been produced by SAAD – a dental charity dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in pain and anxiety control for dentistry – in order to provide guidance to the NHS England Central Commissioning Board (CCB) for Dentistry to shape a safe, high quality and consistent approach to the commissioning of conscious sedation.
SAAD hopes this guidance will be disseminated to regional commissioning teams and rolled out across the UK.
The main recommendations detailed in the document include a framework through which high quality, safe and effective conscious sedation services for dentistry can be organised, commissioned and delivered.
This will be achieved by establishing comprehensive specialised dental conscious sedation referral services, with the aim of meeting the management needs of any given population and region. In addition it will ensure any conscious sedation technique used is safe, effective and appropriate for the needs of the individual.
The techniques used should be evidence based and consistent with the guidance for standards identified in the Francis Report.
A spokesperson for SAAD said: 'As the largest UK sedation society we hope more consideration can be afforded to sedation practice and guidance through this Framework and that the recommendations are taken up by the NHS helping to shape appropriately resourced services for patients and enable them to access what they require.
'The Framework includes clinical requirements ensuring services will be patient-centred, accessible and delivered safely. SAAD believes there should be a strong education agenda within sedation services and would advocate an ethos of learning, training and innovation to improve treatment efficacy and patient outcomes. To achieve this goal services need to have strong clinical leadership, be quality assured and appropriately funded.
'At present, the regional teams who commission dental sedation services under direction from the CCB do not have a national steer. We hope the implementation of the SAAD Framework will rectify this and introduce a more efficient way of working from the referral stages through to the provision of services, for the overall good of the patient.'
The Society for the Advancement of Anaesthesia in Dentistry is a dental charity dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in pain and anxiety control for dentistry.
For more information, visit www.saad.org.uk.
