Hi everyone! So you may have seen on tonight’s daily Covid update from the Prime Minister, that he has announced that dental practices will be reopening from the 8th June.
We have literally found out that they want us to open as the words appeared on the screen! As a profession, we are dumbfounded quite frankly! We’ve had little to no word from any of our governing bodies on concrete steps to open the practices, and suddenly, it’s announced to the country on the news!
To clarify:
All dental practices have received a Prompt to Prepare to return to dentistry from our Chief Dental Officer. The document outlines what we need to do to look to reopen our practice.
We are now starting to look into ways to reopen whilst keeping our patients and staff safe. There are a number of conditions that are associated with our ability to reopen and we will start addressing these as of tomorrow. We will only be reopening when we are satisfied that we have all the necessary processes and personal protective equipment in place to ensure your safety.
However, we must stress that it will not be business as usual straight away. There will be many changes in the way we need to work, and it may still be a little while before we can recommence routine dentistry. Policies need to be updated, the practice layout needs to be looked into, we need to source PPE, we need to train our staff, we need to do new risk assessments, we need to prepare the surgeries and make sure we have updated our operating procedures… The list is endless.
We ask that you do not call yet to try and make an appointment. We are still available for advice, but we are still not making appointments until we know how we will be able to manage our surgery time.
Please look out for further updates in the coming days. There is light at the end of the tunnel, I promise!