Local primary care 'dental clusters': Improving collaboration and the delivery of specialised services in dentistry?

There have been numerous challenges faced by the dental profession during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout this difficult period, a spirit of collaboration and peer support have been crucial in helping to maintain urgent care access for patients and in assisting practices with their return to full operational activity. Dental clusters can provide a different model of working, and can provide improved access to dental care for patients as well as reducing inequalities. They can also improve collaboration and communication between primary care dental services. Furthermore, clusters can help to provide a support network for clinicians and facilitate better integration with medical colleagues. Dental clusters may also provide a better platform for innovation to meet the demands of local populations. Importantly, we feel that clustering can bring educational benefits to colleagues, as it can encourage a multi-disciplinary teamwork approach to patient care and to the needs of the local population, through regular cluster meetings. This can benefit colleagues through peer review, case-based discussions, mentoring and upskilling within clusters. We aim to outline our experiences of a basic cluster model.