Sir, the tragic death of a child in 2000 eventually led to the statutory enactment of a national database for children in 2007 called ContactPoint.1 ContactPoint was to contain key health personnel that came into contact with children. It was scrapped by the government in 2000.

Key health personnel recorded in ContactPoint were the GP, midwife, health visitor and school nurse. Dental surgeons and opticians were omitted. The same omissions appeared to have happened with the NHS Spine. These two groups are the very clinicians that should have regular contact with all children. Not having and not regularly visiting a dentist is a safeguarding issue.

In some hospitals, an electronic discharge summary copy is sent automatically to the GP as a result of the IT system's link to the NHS Spine. For dentists, this still has to be on paper.

The first time a GP hears of a dentally-related hospital admission is sometimes via the automatic electronic discharge summary. Dentists refer patients to hospitals and a consented referral copy to the GP is courteous. This may also occasionally enable another procedure to be done simultaneously under the same general anaesthetic if one is required. This can be especially helpful and kind for patients with additional needs.

The mandatory inclusion of a dental surgeon and optician on the NHS Spine would help satisfy the 'be healthy' component of safeguarding. If a child has a mouthful of dental abscesses and cannot see the whiteboard, the 'be healthy' component of safeguarding has not been achieved, even though the child may have a reasonable BMI and can run around.

The age by which a child should have a mandatory entry on the NHS Spine of a dentist or optician associated with their care should be decided by the relevant profession. Now is the time to act and bring the two professions in from the cold. Their inclusion would make use of an existing IT infrastructure and would benefit everyone.