- Due to social distancing, there will be a reduction in clinic sessions we are running and therefore, fewer patients will be seen during the working day. We have installed high efficiency air filtration systems in each surgery. These fans actively remove the aerosol, which greatly reduces the downtime between treating patients face to face. We have invested in a remote patient portal which means our patients can complete all necessary forms online before they arrive, limiting contact and reducing times in waiting areas.
It is really important that these forms are completed before your arrival at the practice, failure to do so may result in us having to rearrange your appointment.
If you have difficulty completing the forms then please let reception know BEFORE you arrive for your appointment.
Access to care
We are now in a position to start offering routine examinations and treatment.
This will be prioritised on a needs basis and each patient will be triaged independently and offered an appointment accordingly.
We would now like to welcome our patients to contact our reception team via telephone only (we cannot triage patients via email)
Our receptionist team will triage all enquiries according to your level of need: this may result in you being offered an assessment appointment face to face with a dentist or a telephone consultation initially.
We ask that you appreciate our reception team during this period and trust that they have undergone extensive training and will now follow a particular set of questions set by our dentists when you call for an appointment.
Hygiene
We continue to offer patients appointments with our hygienists Gill and Jackie, who will evaluate and risk assess each patient to decide the best treatment required.
This may involve a hand scaling technique or an aerosol generating procedure using ultrasonic scaling equipment.
Due to practice restrictions, hygiene appointments are limited and are booking up fast requiring a waiting list. Please be mindful of this when changing or cancelling appointments. We do require at least 48 hours’ notice (except in the case of sickness)
Private appointments
Please be assured that our practice is dedicating the same amount of clinical sessions to our NHS list as we were prior to this pandemic. However, due to social distancing and the increase in appointment times, inevitably NHS waiting times will be longer.
If you would prefer to be seen sooner in one of our private clinical sessions, the reception team will be happy to discuss availability and prices with you- again these appointments are limited (due to the same strict Covid secure procedures, our private registered and dental plan patients will have priority) but waiting times will be shorter.
If you would like to join our dental plan or become a private registered patient then we do still have a capacity to accommodate this.
If you have any questions regarding any of the above please call our team on 01244301528.
On behalf of the entire team we would like to thank you for your continued support.
Dr Hannah McKinnon & Dr Heather Ryves
