COVID-19 UPDATES

 

August 2021 UPDATE. A message from the Principals 

Dear valued patient,

We understand the frustration that patients must feel in this current Covid situation. Our service has found itself under an extraordinary amount of pressure with a 350% increase in service-need and a 50% decrease in capacity due to various mandatory Covid regulations such as fallow time, staff absences, updates in cross infection control guidelines and full respirator masks which make our work very difficult.

In concrete terms, this means that we are currently unable to provide the pre-Covid service we had been so proud of for over 40 years.

We look forward greatly to the day we can resume our service to the patient community we feel so responsible for.

We are doing everything in our power to mitigate these events but this is not always possible so we apologise in advance for waiting times, missed calls, long delays in treatments and any frayed nerves. 

The last 18 months have been hard for everyone, we hope you are coping well.

We are working hard to re-establish some form of pre-covid service for you in the light of the government mandates and guidelines and are very conscious that this has meant some changes to what you have become accustomed to. For that we are very sorry but please know that we are trying our hardest to cater to everybody’s needs: those patients who missed out in the 4 months we were forced to be closed, those experiencing acute pain and problems and those of you wanting regular appointments.

We listened and heard your queries and questions and thought it best that we clarify the situation that Dentistry and indeed our Practice are in today:

Government mandates mean that we are unable to allow walk-in appointments, at any time, in any circumstances. We understand that this has been frustrating for you and is an absolute change to our ethos. Please know this has been put in place by Public Health England purely for your safety and that of the other patients attending.

Treatments may take longer to finish and may be more spaced apart as we are trying to

accommodate all urgent patients that require treatments with only 1/3 of the appointment slots

capacity to see you in as we are mandated by the government to have fallow time

from the end of any aerosol generating treatments until the next patient can be seen. This is to

minimise any risk of cross contamination of COVID-19. The next patient could be you or

your family so your safety is our absolute priority.

We have extensive new cross-infection control measures that simply mean everything takes

longer and has more steps, but this also means we can be confident in treating you in the

safest possible environment.

We are genuinely sorry for delays in treatments, triaging or booking of visits you may experience. Please know that this is not something we want, but it is a by-product of all the changes COVID-19 has brought to our world. We are putting all efforts into finding solutions to tthe problems.

If you do find yourself experiencing a dental emergency, please do not hesitate to ring the surgery or send us an email to reception@imperialcollegedental.co.uk

When you call, you will either speak to a receptionist or a dentist on call.
Depending on what the issue may be, the dentist on call may be able to:

a. Give advice

b. Issue you with any prescriptions needed

c. Book an appointment with us

d. Refer to an appropriate centre

We understand that this is a difficult time but please rest assured we are doing everything we can to meet the needs of all our patients especially those in acute pain.

 

— Dr R Szasz and Dr E Szasz

Principals

 

 

 

08 June 2020 UPDATE (a message from the Principals):

Dear Patient,

 

We hope that you are keeping well during these unprecedented times.

We hope to open the practice on 18th of June, as you all can imagine we have a very long back log of patients that need to be seen; we will do everything possible to be fair to everyone. We will be prioritizing emergent cases, and the level of emergency will be determined by a screening done with the dentist. Secondly, patients that are halfway through treatment will be prioritized as well.

Additionally, we would like to kindly ask you all, to bear with us, the phone lines have been flooded since the news that dental surgeries will begin to reopen, so rest assured that you will be contacted once we can coordinate an appointment for you.

 

It will take time to get things back to normal, but we are doing everything we can to make sure that everyone who needs to be seen gets seen. However, we would like you to keep in mind that we will not be seeing the same volume of patients that we were seeing prior to the lockdown, therefore it will take several weeks to be able to see all emergent patients.

 

As we intend to keep social distancing in mind, inside of the practice, please do not come in to the surgery unless you have an appointment, and have been contacted by phone 24 hours prior to have a COVID-19 screening. Anyone, that does not have an appointment will not be admitted inside the surgery.

 

Your health and safety are paramount to us, and in keeping this in mind we ask that you bear with our appearance, as all clinicians will be in surgical protective wear, so you may not immediately recognize the dentist and nurses.

 

We thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation during transitional times.

Kind Regards,

 

Dr Rosalie and Emilie Szasz

Principals

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

26 March 2020

In accordance with our latest guidelines provided by the BDA and NHS England, we are temporarily to close for routine appointments.

All patients with scheduled appointments will be contacted to have their appointments rearranged when the situation clarified itself.

We will still be running an Urgent Care service, Monday through Friday from 8am – 8pm and Saturday from 9am – 5pm.

If you are experiencing a dental emergency, please call the surgery, 0207 589 6623, to speak with a dentist who can can offer guidance.

To help reduce the spread of Coronavirus, we are no longer a walk-in emergency service.

Please stay safe and indoors.

 

Further information can be found here:

NHS COVID conditions

Coronavirus guidance

Coronavirus information for the public

Government guidance for staying indoors/ social distancing