Dental Care At Home experiences significant growth in the delivery of domiciliary-based dental care
Dental Care At Home, an oral health care service based in Scotland, delivering NHS dental care services to care homes, has seen significant growth, expanding its portfolio of care homes from 3 to 14 in two years. It now caters for around 750 residents in a care setting, with 97% of these resident in a care home.
Business Manager, Mark Fowler said:
“The service was set up driven by a social conscience to improve the quality of life for elderly residents in a care setting though improved oral health. We are proud to be working with a range of care providers including Advinia, Four Seasons, HC One, Morrison Community Care, Holmes Group and Oakminster Care.
This has been achieved despite having to overcome significant financial, technological and strategic hurdles. For example, there is currently no field-based IT solution for domiciliary work, whilst health boards across Scotland all have differing approaches to domiciliary care.”
Despite these challenges the team at Dental Care At Home are busier than ever, experiencing a record number of 31 visits in October this year and team goes out on average 14 times a month at present.
The founder of the service, Andrea Fowler, said:
“We are delighted to have the support of our current care homes, without which the service could not exist.”
Mark continued:
“A real challenge for care homes is sourcing a service in the first place and in the future a service that has achieved accreditation. This is a new scheme, introduced in the Oral Health Improvement Plan in Scotland. Whilst there is no firm timeline on accreditation, it is possible that current local dentists may opt out, leaving a care home with no continuity of care. This is a challenge that we will be firmly addressing at Dental Care At Home to ensure continuity of care for all our homes.”