WE ARE OPEN AND LOOKING FORWARD TO WELCOMEING YOU TO THE PRACTICE.
Our New Patient Journey incorporates a number of safety protocols to protect you and our team. It has been created based on multiple updated sources from within the dental and medical professions and the government.
Things will be a little different than before as we are taking a number of precautions to ensure that your journey with us is as smooth and most importantly as SAFE and EFFICIENT as possible.
BEFORE ATTENDING AT THE PRACTICE
We will be contacting patients and confirming appointments ahead of their scheduled time. Our reception team will undertake a covid risk questionnaire with each patient before booking. We will request that all patients who are attending Harland & Dear update their standard medical and dental history forms beforehand. These forms will now be in electronic format when possible. In the near future we will also be attempting to make as much of our forms as electronic as possible so please give consent for our team to obtain your email address.
We will carry out a pre-attendance assessment before your appointment and, if necessary, a follow-up telephone conversation to assess relative coronavirus infection risk. Our staff will contact you to remind you of this if we have not received your completed forms. If you have any difficulties with completing the forms we can help you with this over the phone.
Got risk of Covid infection?
If we feel that you are at risk of having possibly been infected, even if you are asymptomatic, we will respectfully request for you to delay booking any appointments with us for at least 2 weeks. If we do not receive the completed questionnaire in time and we are unable to contact you, we may need to cancel your appointment. You may be charged for the appointment if we are unable to fill it at short notice as per our normal terms and conditions.
We recommend that patients in the high-risk groups for developing complications from coronavirus delay non-essential dental treatment for as long as possible, until the trend of the pandemic becomes clear. If you are in a high risk group and do require treatment, we will schedule your appointment at the beginning of the day. To find out whether you are in a high or very high-risk group, please see the link here.
Payments
Harland & Dear will be operating a more efficient payment system going forwards, and may request that payment is made online or over the phone for your appointment prior to you attending.
This reduces the footfall in the practice at any given time.
ARRIVING AT THE PRACTICE
When you arrive at the practice, please call us on 020 83932430 to let us know you are here.
If travelling by car, please stay in your car once parked until near your appointment time. At your appointment time please wait at the bottom of the stairs and we and your nurse will come to collect you. One adult is able to attend with a child; please do not bring additional family members with you unless they are happy to wait in the car or outside the building.
When you attend the practice, we recommend that you limit what you bring into the building.
During the current covid alert level we intend to reduce waiting inside the practice and at reception. Accordingly, appointments will be staggered as far as possible to limit the number of people in the building at any one time.
Wash rooms & Water dispensers :
Sorry would be out of service until further notice. Please ask if there is an emergency
In surgery what to expect :
We will direct you straight to the surgery and request that you do the following before your appointment:
- Use the hand sanitiser in the entrance area
- When undergoing treatment your dentist and nurse may wear extra mask protection then normal, this level of PPE will change as the covid alert level reduces. Whilst our masks may make us appear impersonal and distant, please be assured we are still the same friendly team underneath it all!
- We will also try to use a rubber dam as much as possible
PRACTICE PROCEDURES
The Harland and Dear team have spent time critically looking at every aspect of the practice with a view to removing all non-essential items that can potentially be the cause of infection.
You will find that the practice may appear to be quite bare when you attend.
All clinical and common areas including door handles and surfaces will be regularly disinfected in addition to our normal surface cleaning protocols between patients.
Harland & Dear will be providing a buffer period between patients to allow time for additional decontamination procedures, allow for any treatment overruns, and allow preparation time for the next patient so that they do not need to wait in the reception area.
We may request to make your future appointments by telephone to allow us to accommodate your specific treatment needs into the practice whilst conforming to the above measures.
Fees
Despite the financial impact of the coronavirus, Harland and dear will not be increasing its normal fees unless absolutely necessary for some private procedures.
Our NHS fees still remain the same.
Summary
We are confident that we are able to provide dental care for the vast majority in as normal an environment as possible, while bearing in mind our responsibilities to mitigate risks of infection spread as far as is practically possible.
This guide will be constantly reviewed and updated as necessitated by circumstances over time.
When you have an appointment you will be contacted by our team member who will guide and help you through all the processes and procedures….we are here to help.
If you have any questions regarding your dental care please do not hesitate to contact us on info@harland-dear.co.uk
With Kind Regards,
Harland & Dear Team