Emergency drugs and equipment in primary dental care

7 Practice improvement

To provide evidence that a dental practice maintains and improves its capability to manage medical emergencies, the dental team should ensure that:

• the resuscitation equipment is checked weekly or as per manufacturer’s instructions to ensure that it is ready for use;*
• the practice has a system in place to regularly check that the emergency drugs have not passed their expiry dates;*
• a log of staff training is kept;
• a Significant Event Analysis (SEA) is undertaken after every medical emergency with any learning points shared and an action plan for improvement produced.
  • If the response to the medical emergency involved a problem with medical equipment, this should be reported via the national incident reporting system.

* The SDCEP Practice Support Manual includes an Emergency Drugs and Equipment Weekly Log Template.