National Lockdown January 2021

Following the Prime Minister's announcement of 4th January and confirmation from the Chief Dental Officer we are pleased to say that dental practices will remain open during the latest lockdown.

At the moment we have one member of staff on maternity leave and are relying on everyone else doing extra hours to cover. One staff member has a child in primary school and we are dependant on the school remaining open for the children of critical workers. Schools are making arrangements for this at the moment, however, it may be that we will have to re-arrange some appointments to fit in with altered working hours once the system is established. We will contact you if this is the case.

November 2020 Lockdown

2nd November

 The Prime Minister has announced a new lockdown starting on 5th November 2020.

We are awaiting confimation but we understand that the practice will be considered an "essential service" and will remain open. If you already have an appointment this will still be valid. We will contact you if this changes. We are trying to get official confirmation of this and we will update this information when we recive this.

Update! Chief Dental Officer for England, Sara Hurley, has today confirmed that dental practices should remain open to treat patients when new national restrictions come into force on 5 November.

We are open

7^th July 2020

The practice is finally open. Currently we are opening mornings only and are carrying out just emergency treatments as we deal with the backlog of patients who had problems during lockdown. We are also getting used to operating under the new, stringent guidelines and rewriting our safety protocols on the fly as we identify improvements that can be made.

Later this month, delivery of equipment allowing, we hope to be open full time and offer most treatments. We will have fewer appointments available than previously because of the requirements to deal with the possible aerosol spread of Covid-19 during dental treatment. We are awaiting air purifiers which will greatly help in this respect but they are currently in a container ship somewhere at sea.

Once we have worked up our systems and procedures (and installed the purifiers) we should be able to offer more appointments including hygienist appointments. We hope this will be later in July.

Here is some more information in the form of a letter we send out when appointments are made.

Our service during the Covid-19 pandemic

• We have a closed-door policy. In other words we have the inner front door locked and you will only be allowed to enter the building immediately before an appointment you have previously booked. All appointments have to be made and confirmed remotely by email, telephone etc.

• Enhanced cross-infection protection is in place. There is the, now familiar, plastic screen at the reception desk. Our waiting room will be limited to 4 patients (and their carers) and you will have to sit in the area assigned to you. You will be asked to attend on your own if possible and to bring only essential items with you.

• You may well notice us wearing higher grades of PPE, especially if you have any treatment which involves generating an aerosol (which is created during most treatment we provide).

• We will be offering fewer appointments until the Covid alert Level drops to 2.

• There will be more forms and paperwork than you are used to so that we can keep everyone safe.

Before coming to the practice

• You must make an appointment before coming to the practice.

• Make sure we have your current mobile phone number and that you bring your phone with you and it is switched on. We may need to contact you to change your appointment time.

• Attend on your own or with one carer or parent/guardian.

• Do not bring unnecessary items with you. You may not be able to take them into the surgery and cannot leave them for safety with the receptionist.

• If you have any symptoms of Covid-19 you must let us know immediately so that we can rearrange your appointment.

• You will not be able to come into the practice well before you appointment time and will not be able to stay in the waiting area afterwards. Please make appropriate arrangements for lifts, taxis etc. Our receptionist will be able to help organising this.

• Try to avoid using our toilets by going before you leave (and, yes, the person writing this is old enough to know that may not be possible!).

• Ensure that you can pay using a card or other contact-less method rather than cash or cheque if possible.

• Please update your medical history, and complete the Pre-appointment Screening Form.

Updated advice. Re-opening Schedule

16th June 2020

Things are starting to come into place.

A door entry system should be functional in a couple of days, supplies of PPE are starting to filter through, various pieces of new equipment are expected over the next 10 days and we finally managed to source hand gel with matching wall dispensers (who would have thought that hand gel could be such a problem!).

New procedures and protocols are being written which will give the practice a very different look and feel, at least until the Covid-19 alert status drop to 1 or 2.

June 3rd 2020

It's been a busy week. We have been getting to grips with how to provide routine dentistry safely in the Covid-19 world. Dentistry's particular concern is the Aerosol Generating Procedure (AGP) which is essentially all treatment that involves use of a high speed drill, such as fillings, crowns, bridges and scalings etc.. Using current safety measures these will become prohibitively expensive to provide.

PPE
This remains a challenge especially for the higher grade items such as FFP3 masks and disposable surgical gowns which remain unobtainable outside of the NHS supply chain. We have organised a tele-conference with John Glen MP to discuss these issues.

We have ordered a number of air-flow hoods (3M Versaflo M306 if you want to check out this stylish new look). These will allow us to establish procedures to provide AGPs more efficiently. The filter units to run them are out-of-stock at the moment but we hope to have them by the end of this month.

Social distancing
We are working on various strategies to reduce contact between patients and staff in the reception and waiting spaces of the practice. A perspex shield has been installed at the desk and a door control system has been ordered to control the flow of people in and out of the surgery. A system has also been establised so that patients may get their denture repaired by Southern Smiles with minimum interaction with practice or laboratory staff.

Infection control procedures
Of course we already have many procedures in place and these will continue. We are adding further measures to mitigate the particular problems of Covid-19 (in particular it's infection rate ("r") which may be as high as 3 and it's persistance on various surfaces. We have ordered electrostatic air purifiers to be installed throughout the practice to deal with air-born microbes (including Covis-19) and a "fogging" system to disinfect all surfaces within the premises. The air purifiers and fogger unit are on back-order but should be with us later in the month.

This week seems to have been mainly about ordering items that are out-of-stock. Next week it will be writing policies and protocols. I will keep you updated.

PS
We ordered a couple of non-contact forehead thermometers. Not very exciting except that they were in stock and have arrived!

29^th May 2020

You will have heard the news that the Chief Dental Officer has given the go-ahead for dental practices to commence reopening from the 8^th June. This came as a bit of a surprise since the last advice issued by the CDO was that we would not be able to open before the end of June

Our aim is to return to the sort of service we were providing before the end of March, however, this will not be possible immediately. We will, of course have to incorporate social distancing and new, enhanced infection control procedures so some changes are inevitable.

Initially, we will be triaging patients and prioritising those with urgent needs.

We have been working out a plan for returning to work but, like all private practices we are awaiting delivery of the correct PPE. This remains in short supply and the supply chain is controlled by the Government who give private dentists (and dental laboratories) a very low priority. We assume that yesterday’s unexpected announcement will cause an increase in demand from NHS practices which will further reduce availability for us.

At the beginning of the lockdown we donated our stocks of PPE to the NHS because front line staff did not have access to the protection they desperately needed, so currently we have very low stocks.

It is still our aim to re-open from the beginning of July. This date could be brought forward if PPE becomes available sooner.

We are currently unable to book appointments until everything is in place to create a system that ensures the safety of patients and staff. We will contact people whose appointments have been cancelled.

Please do not call unless you have a problem or require advice.

Call Mr Newman on 0789 443 6501. If he does not pick up he will return your call as soon as possible.

The Dental Practice is closed

until further advice

following Government guidelines issued by the Chief Dental Officer because of the COVID-19 epidemic

If you require advice for an urgent, acute problem please phone our usual number for details on how to access advice, or contact us on Facebook Messenger.

A local emergency dental system is being set up but we do not yet have details of how this will operate, at what times, or where. For up-to-date information on this please call NHS 111 or look online at 111.nhs.uk. Please only use this service for genuine dental emergencies.

The situation with COVID-19 is rapidly changing and we will update our Facebook page and Website as we receive further advice.

Facebook: Catherine Street Dental Practice

Tel: 01722 412621

27/3/2020

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Welcome to the Catherine Street Dental Practice in Salisbury.

We are a small, friendly, family dental practice based in Salisbury's medieval city centre.

Michael Newman established the Estcourt Road Dental Practice in 1988 and in 2011 this amalgamated with the Catherine Street Dental Practice at 9a Catherine Street.

We offer easily understood advice and a wide range of sensibly priced treatment options. Treatment is carried out in a friendly, professional atmosphere and to the highest standards.

The dental practice has many longstanding members of staff and our patients appreciate seeing the same faces everytime they visit us.

Our dentist is Michael Newman who qualified at University College London in 1981. He regularly keeps up to date by attending further training courses.

David Bevan of Southern Smiles Ltd works closely with us as a Clinical Dental Technician providing our patients with full and partial dentures of all types.