3rd November 2020
Dear valued patients,
We hope this message finds you and your loved ones well.
Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Saturday evening (31st October 2020), we have received a few queries relating to the position of dental services during the four-week period of additional restrictions from 5 November. The dental profession has sought clarity on the lockdown measures and the Chief Dental Officer for England, Sara Hurley, has yesterday confirmed that dental practices should remain open to treat patients, during the up-coming period of tightened COVID-19 restrictions.
We are pleased to continue our service provision and remain available for your dental care. There have been alterations in your journey to seeking dental care and many of you are aware of the steps the practice has taken to protect you and your dental team when receiving or providing dental care.
We remain open and look forward to your visit.
Warm wishes,
Your Team at Ruddington Dental Practice.
1st June 2020
Dear valued patients
We hope this message finds you and your loved ones in good health.
You may have heard that dental practices can open from Monday 8th June 2020.
When the government made this announcement on the BBC, it may come as a shock to you to know the dental community heard of this decision at the same time as you may have.
We have had the weekend to digest this announcement that was made public without any prior consultation or guidance given to practices. We are still no clearer today than on Thursday with no further guidance issued to us.
In undertaking this measure over the 10 day period the dental community faces a significant task in ensuring we have all the relevant procedures and policies in place, along with undertaking our new procedures, Staff training and Work Scheduling. Add to this the significant shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as fitted face masks, Surgical Gowns etc, and the delays in receiving orders we have placed weeks ago, which dictates the range of treatment we are able to offer.
Our practice will be opening on the 8th June 2020, but we just wanted to be clear that this will not be business as usual. We are will need to prioritise emergency dental procedures over routine dental procedures initially, which will be dictated largely by the availability of PPE. We are aware that some of our patients have had acute dental problems over the lockdown period and will be contacting you at some point this week to plan for your care. Some of you may have sought remedial work yourselves. We kindly request that haven’t been in touch with us and do require our care to contact us preferably by email (info@ruddingtondental.co.uk) as our phone line will be extremely busy dealing with the logistics co-ordinating our safe return.
Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety and providing the highest standards of care.
You will see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. There will be visual and also operational changes that you may notice.
For example:
- Our practice will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again at your appointment along with a temperature check
- We have removed magazines form our reception area as they are difficult to clean and disinfect
- Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients.
- There will be limited appointments available to undertake the additional Infection control procedures
How you can help:
- With the exception of children and patients with carers, patients should come alone
- A distance of at least 2 metres mush be observed if another patient is present in the dental practice
- We only accept Card Payments and no longer accept cash or cheque payments
- Please contact us if you do need urgent care and haven’t made us aware of it
- If you show COVID 19 Specific symptoms following appointment booking, you should contact the practice by phone
- If you do arrive early to the practice, please wait outside until we can see to you
- Please do not arrive without an appointment. There will be no access for walk in booking
- Patients should come wearing a mask if possible or be prepared to wear one if necessary in the waiting area.
The provision of urgent dental care at the Urgent Dental Care Hubs still remains open and it may be a service we need to refer you to. We will triage all cases and make appointments available after careful screening.
Once we have seen to the more urgent treatment(s) we will be moving on to a gradual increase in our range of services that we have been able to offer.
We’d like to thank you all for your support and understanding. As eager as we are to resume “the new normal” we will need to gradually ease into it.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Sincerely,
Your Team at Ruddington Dental Practice
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