Dear Patient,

We, the staff of Green End Dental Practice, thank you for your cooperation and patience while we have closed our doors to you in the last few weeks. Public Health England has now allowed us to open the practice from Monday 8 June 2020.

We will be opening soon after with a limited service, dependent on the availability of staff and necessary equipment and following the ever-changing guidance. This means it will not be business as usual.

During the last few weeks when we closed our doors, we received phone calls from patients who were having pain or other difficulties. We have been working hard advising them over the phone and referring them to appropriate settings where it was absolutely necessary.  We have a list of patients who have contacted us and we are working through the names to see who still need help. These patients will be contacted by us.

From 8th of June, we will be allowed to undertake a limited number of procedures. Initially, only managing the symptoms that patients have been suffering. This means, availability of routine dentistry as it used to be before the pandemic is still not possible.  It will take some time before the service can return to how it used to be. We profoundly appreciate your patience.

When we reopen, we all need to adopt different measures to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus. We appreciate your cooperation. A member of the team will make the necessary risk assessment over telephone before your visit.

We appreciate that not being able to access the services you want is very irritating but remember that out staff do not deserve abuse. They are doing the best they can for you within the limitations of the current government guidance  and surgery time available.

Please note, if you or anyone in your household have COVID19 symptom/s (Fever, a new cough, loss of taste or smell) you must stay at home and telephone the practice for advice.

• We request patients not to visit the practice, unless they have made their appointment in advance over telephone.

 When you phone you will be triaged by reception staff and if needed a dentist. This is to manage the limited surgery time available for those in greatest need. Initially routine check-ups will not be offered.

• When you have an appointment, you must visit alone (with the exception of parents of children and patients with carers) and please do not arrive too early as you will have to queue outside.
• We will try to reduce handling paperwork to prevent cross contamination. Example: We can E-mail medical history and consent forms etc to be pre filled. depending on what services the patient can receive.
• We recommend you to avoid public transport as much as possible. All personal belongings entering the practice should be kept absolute minimum and be left in a box at reception.
• We recommend you to wear a face mask while travelling to and from the practice. (Accompanying parents and carers should wear face masks too). We will also request you to wear a mask while in the waiting area
• When you arrive at the practice, ring the door bell, please wait outside and do not try to enter the building. If you have parked outside the practice, please remain in the car and phone the practice. Be aware that this is time limited to 40mins
• A member of the staff will risk assess you by asking questions, take your temperature and ask you to use hand sanitizer before letting you enter the building.
• In order to avoid the risk of virus transmission, we need to keep our social distancing measures of at least 2 meters at all times from other patients and staff members. Hence, we will also reduce the number of patients in the building at any one time.
• Please note the toilet facility will not be available. Also, pens and reading materials such as magazines are not available. Please bring your own pen.
• We will not be able to accept cash payments, we recommend all payments to be made by card preferably contactless.
• After the treatment procedure, the clinical staff will ask you to wash your hands for not less than 20 seconds before a member of the team will escort you to the waiting room.
• During your visit, please cover your mouth and nose with napkins if you happen to cough or sneeze. ‘catch it, kill it, bin it’

After the procedure and you have left the surgery, we have to leave the treatment room and keep its door closed for 30-60 mins for any virus in the air to settle, before entering to disinfect the entire room. This will limit the number of patients we could see in a day and will also limit the appointment options we could offer.

Patient safety is our priority at Greenend dental practice. We follow the up-do-date guidance in infection control procedures that are recommended to keep our patients and staff safe. We may appear a little different when you arrive due to the PPE we might be wearing.

During this ‘alert level 4’ for COVID19 declared by the UK government, the risk of transmission of virus is still ‘severe’.  Hence, we will initially be providing appointments for patients who have pain or other urgent symptoms and treatment will be limited to procedures only to alleviate the symptoms.

 Because of the backlog of treatment, we will be prioritising patients who we give appointments, starting with children and vulnerable patients who have been suffering.

We will be restricting the use of drills and equipment that can create aerosols (which are microscopic water droplets that can transmit the virus), this means we can offer you a limited service. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

Green End Dental Practice