SDPO raises concerns over out-of-date PPE in Scotland
NewsPosted by: Dental Design 21st August 2020
The Scottish Dental Practice Owners Group (SDPO) has raised serious concerns that NHS dental teams in Scotland have been issued face coverings that may not be “fit for use”. The organisation reported that when practices received their PPE to begin aerosol generating procedures from Monday 17th August, some discovered that the FFP3 masks they received were “significantly beyond their expiry dates, in some cases by almost a decade”.
The SDPO even claimed that, in some cases, the original expiry dates had been covered with a new date of expiry label. To top it off, those dates had also passed, with the most recent being in 2019.
The SPDO said: “Preliminary inquiries to the mask manufacturer 3M suggest that they do not consider masks beyond their expiry date to be fit for use. Practitioners have serious concerns about the safety of masks of this age. How can masks this old be passed as safe when the manufacturer suggests otherwise? SDPO members are practice owners and must consider patient and staff safety. We lack confidence that the masks issued to dental practice staff are fit for use, and we are very concerned that NHS dental teams across Scotland have been issued with masks that may compromise patient and staff safety.”
However, a spokesperson for the Scottish Government stated: “Revalidating stock and extending the shelf-life of masks is standard practice to maintain pandemic stock levels and this was used in relation to FFP3 respirator stocks as announced in March. Any PPE which has been issued to NHS boards for onward distribution to dental practices and may have passed its original expiry date has been re-tested to ensure it remains safe to use. Such testing has been approved and reviewed by the Health and Safety Executive and to standards relevant to the PPE being tested. Critically, this PPE – supplied free of charge by our NHS – enables dentists to carry out urgent and emergency care while ensuring the safety of patients, dentists and all dental staff. Each board has a proactive programme of fit-testing for FFP3 masks under way with each practice requiring a fit test for a dentist and dental nurse; this is a rolling programme of work, there are around 1000 dental practices in Scotland.”
