Dentists across the country should down drills bec

Dentists across the country should down drills because a lack of emergency facilities are putting patient’s lives at risk, a hearing was told today.

(THURS)

Strict NHS guidelines over ‘critical care’ services at surgeries meant oral surgery under anaesthetic should not be performed, a disciplinary hearing was told.

Two dentists are facing misconduct charges over facilities at the London Day Surgery Centre, Gloucester House, Woodside Avenue, in North Finchley.

The pair, Gloucestershire-based medical director Richard Greenwood and his resident surgeon Malcolm Torz, are accused of carrying out treatment under general anaesthetic in breach of NHS rules.

Greenwood, of Hillview House, Kencot, Lechlade, Gloucester, and Torz, of Myddleton Avenue, Finsbury Park, north London, deny failing to insure the safety of patients.

A professional conduct committee of the General Dental Council was told there was no question of any clinical deficiencies at the well run ‘bright and airy’ practice

But expert Professor Leo Strunin complained the surgery did not have emergency life saving equipment or arrangements to take patients to the nearest hospital.

Alan Jenkins, defending Greenwood, said: ‘The consequences of the argument is many dentists should down tools across the country if there is not an intensive care facility they can transfer a patient to immediately.

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But the professor said it depended on circumstances and the Department of Health recognised there were ‘a number of situations up and down the country’ that needed determining.

Under NHS rules general anaesthesia should only be carried out at hospitals because of the risk of complications – the issue for the council is whether the London Day Surgery Centre was a hospital.

The professor claimed a ventilator at the surgery was ‘not adequate.

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And he added: ‘I cannot think of a hospital that carries out general anaesthetic on the first floor and the only access to an ambulance would mean carrying the patient down a winding staircase.

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The professor said the use of such anaesthesia in dentistry remained ‘highly controversial.

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He said both dentists had attended an advanced life support course and planned to meet the medical director of Barnet General Hospital to discuss emergency transfers.

But he said resuscitation and dialling 999 did not qualify as ‘critical care’, adding it was a ‘scenario we are attempting to avoid’ because of fatal consequences at surgeries in the past.

Martin Forde, for the GDC, said the central issue is whether the two dentists operated premises ‘equivalent to a hospital setting for critical care facilities.

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He argued that the theatre was on the first floor and emergency teams would not be able to transfer an unconscious patient on a trolley.

The committee was told the use of general anaesthetic outside hospitals was outlawed by the Department of Health in 2001.

The hearing continues.

ends