Dentists helping to fill the gap

Kate Taylor and Julie Burke, who are dentists, oral surgeons and academics at Leeds Dental Institute, devised the ResusPod, which provides medicines, equipment and training which can be used on the occasions, albeit rate, that patients are taken ill in a dentist’s surgery.

New rules from regulator the Care Quality Commission mean all dental practitioners must know how to handle emergencies.

Miss Taylor and Miss Burke, who have both worked at Leeds Dental Institute for 15 years, have formed ResusPod with the University of Leeds and Leeds Teaching Hospitals’ NHS Trust.

Miss Taylor said: “If somebody has a heart attack or an asthma attack at the dental practice the whole team are expected to know how to manage emergencies.”

The ResusPod covers all the requirements of the CQC including tamper-evident containers for medicines and the use of infection control materials, the firm said, and it will be sold to dental surgeons, dental schools and potentially the Armed Forces.

Miss Taylor said the dentistry industry had not been severely affected by the coalition’s spending cuts because so many practices are outside the NHS.

“A lot of dentistry is private or part-private. They are run as independent businesses.”