Page 11 - RADC Bulletin 2021

DRPT Chester
use on patients and for this reason DPHC(D) undertook a formal Health Governance and Assurance Visit (HGAV) before the DRPT reached Full Operating Capability (FOC) and prior to it treating patients routinely.
The HGAV provided evidence of the high standard of care this capability could provide for the personnel who we planned to treat within the facility. The DRPT was found to be more than acceptable for Real Life Support (RLS) treatment and fully validated for use.
The three week DRPT PoC in Chester was successful with lots of positive feedback from the patients, the CoC and people that came to inspect the team. It provided evidence
of its utility by increasing severalfold the output capacity for AGPs, compared to what the firmbase DPHC(D) dental centre could provide alone. This was amplified by the ability to reduce fallow periods in the tents to 10 minutes because a significant volume of air change was possible when the sides of the tents were lifted between patients. The equipment, infrastructure and DRPT personnel were tested and having been formed to enable the concept phase were deemed to be an efficient capability that should be exploited further.
This success led the DRPT to be tasked to Tern Hill in December 20 to treat 1st Battalion The Royal Irish, this time using only tents plus the addition of a tented waiting room. It was another opportunity to prove how useful the DRPT can be and there was a lot of interest in it. The Army Media team filmed interviews with the team and it featured in several
Army updates on the intranet. All of this was undertaken whilst there was a significant COVID-19 outbreak within the barracks showing evidence of the professionalism and adherence to protocols which were in place to protect the team and patients.
The DRPT deployed to Fort George in January 21 to treat the 3rd Battalion Royal
DRPT PoC Team
Regiment of Scotland where the opportunity to power the DRPT using mains electricity rather than the noisy generators was welcomed by the team. This was the most isolated deployment and the team stayed
in location on weekends allowing them to enjoy the local scenery as described by LCpl Wilson. The weather experienced in Scotland was the most extreme of all the sites with high winds and snow and despite this the team produced excellent results, again showing the robustness of RADC personnel.
A high profile tasking to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) in April 21 was utilised to treat the new intake of Officer Cadets whilst DC Camberley was being refurbished. This was a slightly different use of the DRPT as previously it had only treated deploying personnel and was now providing a solution for a gap in service provision
from the main dental centre, again showing its flexibility for different scenarios. It was an excellent opportunity to allow a large number of RADC personnel from DPHC(D) London South Region to work in the facility which provided significant training value. The DRPT was used in a fully tented format plus a marquee to act as a reception and waiting area. There was lots of interest from the media again with several different organisations coming to take photos and film the team including The Telegraph, The Guardian, Forces News, BFBS and Army Media. It was great to be able to showcase what the RADC has to offer the wider Army and Military.
The DRPT was deployed to Weeton Barracks, Lancashire to treat 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment and 3 Medical Regiment for its final deployment, for now! The lead for organising the DRPT moved to 3 Medical Regiment which enabled us to test our processes for use by a new unit that hadn’t deployed a DRPT before. The process
Tented DRPT surgery
of switching the lead and using the dental equipment from 3 Medical Regiment went well showing that the DRPT capability can be deployed using the guidelines we have put in place giving it substantial utility for use in the future.
Overall, each deployment was slightly different allowing us to show how adaptable both the DRPT capability was and the team working within it. The main intent was for the DRPT to increase the dental fitness
of deploying units which was achieved
with better than expected results. It also provided valuable experience for all of the personnel who worked within it which will be vital for future operations. An important indicator of the impact the DRPT had on units was the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the Treatment Need Index (TNI) which is a measure of the number of hours of dental treatment per 1000 personnel it would take to make a unit dentally fit, with the KPI target set at less than 375 hours. The graph below from the DRPT deployment
in support of 3SCOTS is an example of the impact the DRPT has when it is deployed to support units with poor dental fitness. In all of its deployments the DRPT managed to successfully decrease the TNI to below the TNI KPI of 375.
Graph showing the impact of the DRPT whilst treating 3SCOTS
Hardstanding DRPT surgery
Hard at work setting up
DRPT Tern hill
RADC BULLETIN 2021 9