07/06/2020
Good morning everyone!
We are reopening tomorrow, Monday June 8th and we wanted to let you all know what this all means for our staff and our patients.
The last week has been a crazy whirlwind and a huge amount of effort has been put in behind the scenes to prepare us for this big day.
Our profession has had 3 separate sets of guidelines published last week including one from the Chief Dental Officer that was only released at 2.45pm on Thursday . As you can imagine that gave us very little time to digest its content and implement the changes needed to comply.
This last week we've:
- Written new risk assessments and policies
- Risk assessed all of our staff, equipment and working procedures
- Rearranged our reception area to comply with social distancing
- Had our PPE masks fit tested by an independent assessor
- Started the installation of an extensive ventilation system to create negative pressure in our surgeries to limit potential virus spread and shorten fallow time between patients
- Had an extensive staff training session on Friday in readiness for Monday
and much much more.
The guidelines expect us to have procedures in place to reduce the risk to our staff and our patients and there are some things we require of you, our patients:
- When making an appointment this must be made over the phone to limit people within the clinic
- The staff will go through a health risk assessment with you to determine that you are not in a high risk category for Covid19. They will also ask you your current covid19 symptom status.
- When you arrive for you appointment please wait outside and text the clinic mobile number (07487 514499) to let us know you've arrived. Once the reception is clear we will text or call you back asking you to come in.
- Once inside please immediately use the hand sanitiser provided before completing your Covid19 consent form. The staff will re-check your covid19 symptom status with you.
- Treatments will be strictly limited to no drilling (see below)
- After leaving the surgery please re-use the hand sanitiser before approaching the reception desk
- We'd appreciate card transactions if possible
We're so very sorry that these procedures will be seem a world apart from the warm, friendly atmosphere we've prided ourselves on for years and we wish it wasn't necessary.
Until the Covid19 Alert level drops to Level 3, we are prevented from using our drills and scalers as this creates aerosol that could contain viral particles. Once at Level 3, we will begin moving back to using our drills and scalers however strict rules still apply. We will be wearing extensive PPE that will look very strange and we will be seeing fewer patients per day as a result.
Also we will have to charge an additional £30 per appointment to cover the cost of the PPE. This only applies to appointments when we use the drill or scaler and you will be informed of this charge before making the appointment and when you arrive. If you wish to avoid this charge then simply advise us and we will postpone your treatment until such time that the expensive PPE isn't required.
Some patients have offered their own PPE for appointments and whilst that is a lovely gesture, we cannot accept as we have to have rigorous tracking of all of our PPE including certifications and fit testing results for every brand.
Finally, please be patient with all of our staff. These guidelines are very new to us and we are learning every day so we may not get it right every time. It is a very stressful time for all of our team.
Thank you all for your support and we will see you very soon.
Dr Andrew Healy and all the team at Pall Mall Dental.
