25 May 2023

A pioneering initiative to provide integrated dental services across the Thames Valley has been announced today. The Thames Valley Community Dental Services Partnership is a collaboration between Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Central and North West NHS Foundation Trust, and will provide specialist dental care for children, young people and adults with additional and complex needs. 

All three Trusts will work together to improve patient care, delivering a unified and integrated approach for the provision of specialist-led dentistry including sharing best practices and collaborative learning.

Hugh O’Keeffe, Senior Commissioning Manager Dental, NHS England – South East commented; “The Community Dental Services provide crucial services to some of the most vulnerable people in our community offering dental treatment and improving the oral health of our patients. The collaborative agreement builds on strong working relationships developed over many years through sharing best practice to seek to continually improve care to patients.”

This kind of proactive and innovative partnership working is the first of its kind within Community Dental Services.

The aims of the Partnership are:

  • Working across the region to improve patient care and reduce inequalities.
  • Delivering the best possible services for our patients and supporting those most at risk
  • Rosalind Mitchell (Clinical Director and Deputy Chief Medical Officer (Quality and Patient Safety), Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust) , Shabnum Ali (Clinical Director, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust) and Kirsten Criggie (Assistant Clinical Director, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) jointly expressed: “Being part of this exciting collaborative partnership has many benefits such as shared learning between clinicians and projects that are integrated across all three trusts. We’re looking forward to seeing how this partnership will evolve and more importantly seeing how this will improve care for our patients across the Thames Valley.”

To find out more about the Service please visit: http://www.thamesvalleycommunitydental.nhs.uk/