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Coronavirus (Covid-19) - Emergency Service Information

Government confirms face-to-face patient care can resume

The Government has given the green light for the restoration of routine care services in England.

NHS England and the Chief Dental Officer have now confirmed that practices can provide face-to-face patient care from 8^th of June. Whilst this news is welcome, it will be a gradual reopening based on the availability and fitting of Personal Protective Equipment and in particular masks, as well as social distancing and appropriate cross-infection control measures to enable us to open safely. Dentists are keen to start providing care as soon as safely possible, but we will need everyone to be patient as practices get up and running. Re-opening will be a phased return to practice, so for the time being please continue to use our emergency service. 

At present, stringent measures have been imposed on dentists restricting the use of essential dental equipment. Any patient who feels the need to access the emergency service will be assessed by telephone and given advice. Anyone requiring more complex treatment may be referred to a specialised dental care site.

 THE PRACTICE IS CLOSED. – OUR NORMAL DAYTIME OPENING TIMES NO LONGER APPLY. - DO NOT VISIT THE PRACTICE.

Please carefully read the following paragraphs about what to do if you need help.

If you are in extreme pain, need to see a dentist urgently or seeking advice, you can telephone the practice between the hours of 9am -11am Monday-Friday. If your call is not answered immediately, please continue to listen till the end of the message when you will be requested to leave your name and contact telephone number. Please repeat your details twice and clearly on the answer phone and a dentist will call you back. Also leave a brief, clear description of your symptoms. If your emergency requires treatment, the dentist will advise you what to do.

Out of hours emergency treatment covering evenings, weekends and bank holidays

Many of our patients will be aware that we share an emergency out of hours dental emergency service covering evenings, weekends and bank holidays with two local dental surgeries. This service will continue as normal but with telephone advice only as above. The emergency service can be contacted on 077 6735 3759. This service operates from 6pm - 9pm Monday to Friday and from 9am to 9pm at weekends and bank holidays.

If you are a Denplan registered patient, the cost of this service is included in your plan unless you specifically elected to opt out of the emergency out of hours cover. The choice to opt out will have only applied to patients who registered from August 2018. If in doubt, please check your registration paperwork or call 0800 401 402 to speak to one of their customer support team. If you have internet access, you can search Denplan for information through their patient portal. Before contacting the emergency service, please have your Denplan registration number to hand as you will be asked for it when you call.

If you are a pay as you go patient accessing this service, we may not be on call. It is important you are aware that individual practices set their own fees. We would urge you to check whether there will be any charges with the dentist who may be arranging treatment for you.

You can also find lots of self-help information on the homepage after you close this window.

If you think you have Coronavirus and need urgent dental care

If you are generally unwell, self-isolating because you or any of your family have any of the symptoms below, please do not contact our emergency dental service.

● A high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back

● A new, continuous cough – this means you've started coughing repeatedly

For urgent dental treatment use: NHS 111 online coronavirus - or telephone 111 for further instructions.

For changes that may occur to our service – we will be regularly reviewing and updating the coronavirus information on our website: www.gideaparkdentalpractice.co.uk.

We understand that this is an extremely worrying time for everyone and we must all do our best to support our precious NHS staff and the thousands of people providing essential services to keep us healthy, safe and fed. We take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones all the very best and better days ahead.

Covid Newsletter May ’20