WORCESTERSHIRE’S community dental team is full of smiles after winning an international prize for their work safeguarding vulnerable patients.
Laura Rollings, dental officer for the Worcestershire Community Dental Services, collected the first prize in the Dental Surgery category at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSEd) conference held in Chennai, India.
Run by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, the Community Dental Service provides specialist NHS dental care for children and adults whose treatment needs cannot be met within a general dental practice.
This includes patients with physical, sensory, intellectual, mental, medical, emotional or social impairments.
Laura Rollings traveled to Chennai to collect the award (Image: Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust)
The event brought together experts and specialists from across the globe to participate in and share knowledge and research outcomes to budding academics and scholars in their respective fields.
Laura said: “Together with Irena Twarowska, dental officer, and Sophie Hughes, consultant in pediatric dentistry, we have ensured that our service will be in line with the national standards of following up vulnerable patients that have not been brought to their dental appointment.
‘Thrilled to be awarded first prize’
“The national protocol involves contacting the patient or carer within 24 hours of a missed appointment and may include writing to carers, social workers and GPs if no contact is received.
“This importantly ensures we safeguard our patients, and they have the opportunity to have vital oral care assessments and dental needs are met.”
At the RCSEd conference, Laura was given the opportunity to present the work of the Worcestershire team to an international audience.
“I displayed a poster and delivered a talk about the project undertaken,” she said.
READ MORE: How the NHS dental crisis is being dealt with in Worcestershire
“I was thrilled to be awarded first prize in the Dental Surgery category, and to represent the great work that is carried out within the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust.”
Earlier this month, we reported that dentists were being offered a £15,000 one-off payment in an attempt to boost the number offering NHS services in Worcestershire.
The move came after figures revealed more than a third of adults in the county had been unable to secure an appointment with an NHS dentist in the past two years.