After the Prime Minister’s announcement on 31^th October 2020, we are pleased to announce the clinic will remain open. 

Our approach is to ensure that patients can return to our clinic to receive the care they deserve safely. On top of the high standard of infection control we routinely undertake, we have enhanced them further in alignment with the latest UK guidelines. You can be confident that you will be safe with us!

Our patient journey will be different in order to follow Social Distancing. We have called this our Arrival Etiquette. This must be followed and we thank you in advance for doing so.

We are also requesting patient complete a Covid-19 Screening Questionnaire  for every visit to the clinic. This must be completed 2 days prior to your appointment, not earlier or later. If this is not completed in a timely manner, the appointment will be cancelled and subject to our cancellation fees. Our team will be on hand to assist with this if you have any further questions.

Also, we have introduced a contactless form processing service called Patent Portal (update your medical history forms and patient details forms etc). This will all be sent prior to your appointment. Please complete these prior to your appointment on your personal devices to aid with other minimal contact processes in place.

Arrival Etiquette:   

Before you arrive: Complete Covid-19 Screening Questionnaire, Patient Portal Forms: medical history forms and patient details forms in a time manner etc (2 days prior to the appointment)

When you arrive: 

• Please wait outside the clinic. We shall call you in when ready for your appointment to maintain social distancing. Please have your mobile phone to hand.
• As usual the door will be locked and opened on your arrival. Please knock on the door (do not push the doorbell), to alert us of your arrival.
• Please arrive alone and promptly with one small bag. Cycles will not be allowed inside the premises but there are many cycle stands nearby.
• Your temperature will be checked with a no contact thermometer by a member of staff.
• You shall be asked some questions regarding symptoms (we appreciate you may have answered these before but we are obliged to ask again)
• We shall provide you with disinfectant hand rub.
• Please sit in your designated area. Please maintain Social distancing of 2 meters
• Please bring drinking water with you for the reception area.
• We shall not be accepting cash payments. Contactless payment (Apple Pay/Google Pay/Samsung Pay) is the preferred method.
• Our practice toilet will be unavailable to use.
• A no handshake policy will be implemented, but I can assure you we are happy to see you!

The steps we have to take to prepare ourselves and the treatment room:

In an unprecedented endeavor, we have taken many steps to protect the safety of our team and most importantly to us – our patients: –

1. As a Team we will arrive at the practice, and get changed into our work clothes and change again before we leave the premises.

2. All surfaces including door handles etc will be disinfected and wiped down between patients. Anti-viricidal solutions will be used and are not harmful to us.

3. We will be using lots of extra layers of protection for you and our team. This includes expensive respirator masks, special gowns, eye protection and visors – we are sorry, but we will sometimes look like we are in a hospital! Suppliers in the UK are overwhelmed with orders, but we have managed to source the required equipment.

4. Online virtual consultations with a member of our clinical team. This means we can understand your needs before visiting us and minimize the time spent at the clinic.

5. Patients at high risk – we are aware that some of you are deemed higher risk patients, e.g. the elderly and people with certain health problems. We will discuss with you when we book your appointments any special requirements you may have and I emphasise your well-being is our number one priority. If needed we will spend more time to ensure that those most in need are not put at added risk.

6. Extra staff training –by the time we are back, ALL of our staff will be expert in the latest methods of caring for our patients.  We will make sure that all the work surfaces are cleaned thoroughly between patients, and allow adequate time for the air purification and disinfection system to clean the air. This takes a little more time and you may notice many changes when you next visit!

So, as you can see we are taking every conceivable reasonable step we can to take care of your wellness. However, rest assured that we will treat you with our customary good humour and of course kindness and respect. We love helping our patients at Mint Dental Clinic and we will do everything we can to assist you. I would like to emphasise that our usual protocol is suffice but we wish to take further steps to reassure patients during their visit to the clinic.

UPDATE ON THE PHASING OF PATIENT CARE

I would like to update you on the phase of patient care we are providing. Currently we are only providing telephone consults for emergency care. When we first open, we shall continue to provide this, but also be able to see patient for face-to-face care. However, this will initially be limited to patients who require URGENT emergency care where we do not require the use of aerosol producing equipment (e.g drills).

This is to comply with Guidance from the Government and other Regulatory bodies. We shall update patients in due course when we are able to see patients for routine care.

NOTE – Screening Questionnaire is mandatory and must be completed 48 hours prior to your appointment. 

Please fill in COVID-19 Risk Assessment two days prior to appointment https://forms.gle/w6AYhM6MpixyQPc5A

Click the links to view our Arrival Etiquette Document and Video

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BXM4FUMMMOkCTUfrpAiLBzplFTg4IF3_eB3ao55E1eQ/edit?usp=sharing

Arrival Etiquette Video

Thank you

The Team at Mint Dental Clinic