DEVELOPING THE PHARMACY WORKFORCE TO HELP REDUCE INEQUALITIES IN ORAL HEALTH

Abstract

Collaborative working within community-based healthcare services can lead to improved patient care and improved access to services. Variation in access to services exists across the UK, both in terms of availability and accessibility of dental services. Community pharmacies offer an opportunity to improve access to care, through delivery of oral health advice and signposting patients. Increased collaboration could also enable pharmacists to better advise patients on oro-facial pain, oral care and dental services; therefore, contributing towards making every contact count and helping to reduce inequity in access.

Aims: To improve the oral knowledge, skills and understanding within community pharmacies and improve their integration and collaboration with dental services.

Methods: This project was based in Kent, Surrey and Sussex and stakeholder meetings were held between pharmacy and dental professionals to identify methods of improving collaboration and to understand the oral training needs of the pharmacy workforce. Involved in these stakeholder meetings were community and hospital pharmacists, dentists and dental care professionals.

Results: This project resulted in the production of 10 webinars and factsheets for pharmacy professionals about oral/dental issues, which were developed by the stakeholder meetings identifying topics that should be covered. Another outcome is the promotion of integration in the education and training of the dental and pharmacy workforce, which will be achieved by the development of a dental pain and pharmacy group to support the development of the factsheets/webinars and ensure communication between pharmacy and dentistry colleagues.

Conclusions: The project identified that dental and pharmacy professionals have a desire for increased collaboration. Communication and shared learning needs to be improved at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in order for pharmacies to provide the best advice to all patients. Longer-term changes in access to services and improvements in oral health will need to be monitored to identify whether these collaborations result in improved care. This model could provide a framework for other countries that are facing similar access challenges. Blended learning and access to common resources could support countries in reducing inequalities in access to oral health advice.