An important message to the existing patients of Heathcote House Dental Practice
Dear Patients,
It has been a long ten weeks since we were told to close the doors at Heathcote Dental Practice!
It is a great relief to us, as we are now finally being allowed to start caring for our patients. Thank you so much for all your patience and understanding, it has really been appreciated.
Now the hard work begins, as we catch up on the dental care that has been missing since lockdown begun and begin returning Heathcote House Dental Practice to the ‘new’ normal.
Our goal is to provide the same level of excellence with minimal interruption to your usual experience when visiting Heathcote House, however there are some inevitable ‘social distancing ‘changes that are having to be made:
Before your appointment
You will be contacted by our team and asked some screening questions. You will also receive important communications by email and text in the run up to your appointment.
The day of your appointment
Before you leave home please brush your teeth and visit the lavatory (The patient toilet will only be available in emergencies). Please bring a mask/face covering. When you arrive at the practice please remain in your car. A member of staff will come to your car to take your temperature and ‘check you in’. If you arrive by foot there will be limited spaces in the waiting rooms, and your temperature will be taken before you can enter the building. Please wear your mask/face covering into the building.
Hand cleaning facilities will be available inside the front door.
Entering/leaving the practice
You will be escorted to the surgery for your dental appointment and then escorted out of the building at the end.
After the appointment
You will be contacted shortly after your visit by our Reception Team to arrange payment, if it has not already been made and book any necessary future appointments.
It is important to reassure you that dental practices in the UK have always had to meet some of the most stringent requirements for infection control in the world, they always have been and always will be very safe environments to visit. At Heathcote House Dental Practice infection control has always been a top priority and we will be following recommendations made by the British Dental Association and Public Health England.
We are all so grateful for your understanding over the lockdown. We have spoken to lots of you over the last few months and the messages of support have really helped keep us going.
We have a significant back log of patients with problems we know about and there will also be those that haven’t contacted us yet. We are also aware that we had to cancel lots of routine appointments prior to lock down. We will attempt to prioritise patients as fairly as possible and are going to be working extra sessions to help clear the backlog.
Hygienist Appointments
We are delighted to announce that as of the 25th August, we are re-opening our Hygienist’s list. We are looking forward to being able to offer patients that have had to be cancelled, an appointment in the coming weeks. However, there are going to be some limitations;
We are currently contacting patients individually that have been cancelled due to the Pandemic & are doing this in a chronological order working from April 2020.
Our Hygienist appointments are going to be extremely sought after as we are currently only able to house one Hygienist per day (as opposed to two, previously) & have an enormous backlog of patients requiring appointments.
Due to this, we will ask that 24 hours notice at a minimum is given prior to cancelling/postponing an appointment, or the FULL fee will be payable.
We ask that you bear with us once again whilst we try to play ‘catch-up’ with cancelled patients.
Please be aware that the Hygienists are unable to use the ‘ultrasonic’ scalers during our Hygienist appointments, to reduce any possible aerosol production therefore the Hygienist will be using hand instruments only until further notice. Please also note that our ‘Spittoons’ are also out of use so there won’t be the usual rinse available at each appointment.
Thank you for your understanding with the necessary amendments in the current climate.
PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
Due to worldwide limits on personal protective equipment (PPE) we will be limited to the amount of treatment involving drills we can do. One of the team will contact you if you rang us over lockdown and arrange an appointment. Please be patient with us. We will be trying our hardest to limit the inevitable waiting times and minimise the rearranging of appointments.
Having said all that, we are very excited to get back to caring for our patients and look forward to seeing you face to face again (new hairstyles included!).
Warmest regards
Ben, Brett, Mike, & Duncan
Heathcote House Dental Practice
heathcote-house-dental@dentallymail.co.uk
If you have missed the most recent updates from our Dentists, please find them here: Easter Update 2020 & May Update 2020
