dental center patients at risk of hepatitis or HIV
The centers persist in causing scandal. After the case of “acts of mutilation” of patients in the Proxidentaire centers of Belfort and Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur in Bourogne, it is a dental center in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) that is making headlines. On January 31, ARS Normandy has announced that all the patients of the center in question were going to be invited by mail to consult their doctor so that the latter “can give him appropriate medical information and prescribe the appropriate screening tests (…) due to a low risk of transmission for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and very low for hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV”.
“In Normandy, 150 field surveys are carried out each year, according to pre-identified risks, in terms of health security, the operation of establishments and services and the analysis of medical acts and practices of professionals”, indicates the ARS Normandie on its website. Here, during an inspection to assess the quality of care and compliance with standards and good hygiene practices in the center located at 3 rue du Général Leclerc in Rouen, the instance was detected no less than 80 hygiene anomalies. Among them, local sales but above all poorly cleaned or insufficiently sterilized instruments, in particular strawberries.
She then immediately translated a formal notice to the center, urging it to get back to the standards. “Faced with this situation, corrective measures were immediately requested by the ARS and implemented by the center. They have made it possible to eliminate the risks, ”she explains in a press release.
A telephone platform to answer patient questions
More than 1,000 patients were also warned as a preventive measure. Although the risk is “low” or even “very low”, “ARS Normandy wanted the patient population concerned to be removed and informed (…) each patient concerned is informed individually by mail to his home by the dental health center, and invited to consult his attending physician”, declared the authority to France Blue Normandy. Patients should be screened for hepatitis B, C and HIV.
During a new visit to the center, the ARS teams were able to ensure that it had carried out all the necessary final steps. “A counter-inspection visit enabled the ARS to note the return to secure operation of the structure and the fulfillment of the commitments made by the manager. »
The dental center therefore remains open and has made a telephone platform available to patients to answer their questions (0805 293 000 Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and guide those without a doctor. The attending physicians and laboratories have also been contacted upstream by the ARS to ensure that all the actors concerned are well informed of everything.
A few reminders are in order
To prevent situations of this kind from happening again, the director general of the ARS should soon write to all professionals in the oral sector. The purpose of the letter being to remind them of their ethical and regulatory obligations concerning good hygiene practices and the prevention of oral pathologies, as well as the penalties in the event of a breach.
At the same time, the Ministry of Health has just published on its website a charter of good practices for oral care. Accessible online to everyone, this document describes the essentials to follow in terms of safety, traceability and quality. It was designed in partnership with the National Order of Dental Surgeons and the ARS.
The last high-profile case concerning dental centers dates back no further than this summer when the ARS of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté had suspended two Proxidentaire centers. A price decision ‘cgiven the seriousness of the breaches in the quality and safety of the care observed”, she explained. ” The analysis of patient files revealed that acts of voluntary mutilation and decay were carried out on healthy teeth or without notable pathology and without medical justification”.