CORONA VIRUS CRISIS – SERVICE UPDATE 13/5/20

Following the Prime ministers announcement on Sunday of a phased approach to ease lock-down measures in England, we are presently working on a plan for safe re-opening. However, in common with many sectors, we currently have no national guidance from our professional bodies ( The Chief Dental Officer of England has been very slow to issue official advice throughout this cri-sis). We are seeking information from all of our professional organisations including the General Dental Council (GDC), Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the British Dental Association (BDA).

We are using this time to review all our policies and procedures. Our primary concern is for the safety of all our patients and also our staff.

We do not envisage any change to our service until the beginning of June at the earliest. We are therefore cancelling all appointments in May. If you have a routine appointment booked for this month then you will either receive a text message of call from one of our team to cancel this.

We will adapt and change our plans as new information and guidance is published. I would like to reassure all our patients that we will make decisions after reviewing the best available scientific evidence and in line with national guidance and policy.

We hope that a date for resuming provision of dental care will be available soon and as soon as we know more we will update this page.

In the meantime;

Horbury Dental Care continues to be closed for all routine care in line with Government instruc-tions to all dental practices across the country.

We remain open in normal business hours for telephone advice and support. Please do not at-tend the practice in person unless we arrange a specified time with you.

Please call 01924 211234 to speak to one of our team of dentists who will be happy to help if you have a dental emergency.

In order to support our colleagues in the wider NHS, we are running an emergency service from 8am to 8pm 7 days a week. Outside of business hours, our answer message will give details of a contact number to ring. Please try to avoid calling NHS 111 or your GP for dental problems.

In normal hours, we will arrange a telephone call back appointment from one of our dentists who is able to give advice and recommend self help treatments. Where appropriate, prescriptions can be issued for you to collect from the local pharmacy. In certain situations, the dentist may be able to book you into a clinic but only if they consider you have a very urgent problem ( determined by nationally set criteria).

Horbury Dental Care is now open as a hub to provide urgent dental care to those patients (who do not have symptoms of Corona virus) with severe dental problems. We will not be providing any routine care. Treatment options are very limited during this time of lockdown.

PLEASE NOTE, this service can only be accessed following this route via telephone triage.

It is important that you do not attend the practice in person without an appoint-ment.

For patients who are normally registered with Horbury Dental Care, please follow instructions above to contact the practice.

For patients registered at alternative practices, please contact your own practice for help and advice. If your dentist considers that you meet the criteria set out by NHS England for referral to ourselves for urgent attention, then they will follow the strict guidelines that we all must follow.

Once we receive the referral from your dentist, we will telephone you and make further ar-rangements.

Please follow this advice and these instructions. These have been written to keep us all safe. The guidelines are National Policy which we are duty-bound to follow and adhere to.

Please continue to check our website for updates.

In the meantime, we recommend that you follow government advice.

Thank you