Dental Practice Referral Policy

Often practice referral policies (as inspected regularly by the Local Office of NHS England when carrying out practice inspections) do not have sufficient accurate detail regarding the correct referral of dental patients in Kent either via the Dental Electronic Referral Service (DERS) or when an electronic or paper referral (e.g. for private referrals) and/or initial specialist phone call for urgent cases has to be made. The attached policy has been approved for use by the Local Office of NHS England South (SE) and covers the minimum requirements of such a policy. It can be adapted for individual practices as required.

The practice visit checklist for NHS England South East has these questions –

Is there a patient referral policy and protocol?

Is there a named lead person for monitoring referrals?

 NHS restorative referrals from Kent dentists are now handled using the NEC (REGO) Dental Electronic Referral Service (DERS) service. This service covers NHS referrals for:

• Oral Surgery
• Oral Pathology
• Urgent (two week wait) for suspected malignancy
• Orthodontics
• Restorative
• Endodontics
• Periodontics and
• Prosthodontics
• Sedation (for oral surgery or routine/restorative dentistry)
• Special Care Dentistry (Community/salaried service)
• Salivary gland/duct dysfunction/dry mouth
• Facial Pain
• Temporomandibular joint disorder
• Trauma

File Downloads

Webinar on REGO referrals held every 3 months presented by Huw Winstone, Senior Dental Clinical Advisor NHS England SE Region:

‘Referrals: Using The Dental Electronic Referral Service (REGO) Effectively’