Lessons learnt from COVID ward redeployment

摘要

From preparation to patient support: what you need to know about working on a COVID ward. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many dentists and other dental care professionals across the UK were redeployed to help with the crisis. These redeployments covered a wide range of medical services including intensive care and COVID wards. The majority of these dentists were employed in dental hospitals, many of which were part of a larger NHS trust. In some trusts, dental specialty registrars and dental core trainees were the first to be redeployed, followed by specialty dentists. The majority of specialty dentists and NHS dental specialty consultants were required to maintain a core skeleton service in dental hospitals with various tasks and new roles during the pandemic. I currently work as a singly qualified specialty trainee in oral medicine. Since graduating in dentistry, I have worked in a general dental practice, the community dental service and as a specialty dentist in oral medicine. Ayear of working as a senior house officer in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) gave me an insight into how a hospital ward works. However, a COVID medical ward is an entirely different environment to being a junior dental core trainee on an OMFS ward.