Life support training for dental professionals: joint statement from Care Quality Commission and General Dental Council

Published: 24 November 2020

Resuscitation Council UK recommends cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training for dental teams. Their document ‘Quality Standards: Primary Dental Care’ states:

“Dental practitioners and other dental healthcare staff should update their knowledge and skills in resuscitation at least annually".

Together, we recognise that COVID-19 social distancing can make accessing accredited training difficult. This includes Basic Life Support (BLS) and Immediate Life Support (ILS).

Providers and individual dental professionals should continue to make every effort to complete accredited BLS/ILS training annually. However, if this training is unavailable due to current COVID-19 restrictions, appropriate alternative provisions, in accordance with relevant government guidance, should be made.

For example:

• e-learning
• self-directed study
• team-based scenario training in the clinical environment.

Records and evidence of efforts made to access training, and to update CPR knowledge and skills should be maintained.