BelhavenDentalSurgery

They have arrived!

Thanks to your continued generosity, our team were able to travel and have arrived safely in Malawi. They are already seeing patients.

You can keep track of their story via our Facebook page. Like, Comment and Share to keep up to date with their African Adventure at https://www.facebook.com/belhavendental/

This week, we featured in the Greenock Telegraph

The article is helping to promote our involvement with the Smileawi Dental Charity

Smileawi was set up in October 2012 by Nigel and Vicky Milne, two dentists from Dunoon following a trip to assess the dental services available in northern Malawi. The charity was set up to try and improve the dental services in the areas of northern Malawi. Its aim is to provide basic and safe dentistry to a population which otherwise has a very limited access to dental services.

The charity relies on qualified dentists, dental therapists and dental nurses to volunteer their time and skills by travelling to Malawi to support the aims of the charity. All volunteers are completely self- funded with trips normally lasting 16 days.

This September, Catherine Jones, Kate Steele and Caroline Turner (left to right) will travel to Malawi to assist Nigel, Vicky and other volunteers in providing access for the locals of northern Malawi to dental treatment.

A donations tin is available at our reception and we are also planning a few fundraisers. We would therefore be delighted if you were able to contribute to the significant cost of their trip in anyway – large or small.

For further information on the charity and the work they do, ask at reception during your next visit to Belhaven and please visit the Smileawi website – http://smileawi.com/

Smileawi is registered Charity – No: SC046434

Caity Aitken has now completed her training year at Belhaven as a VDP – a vocational dental practitioner.  We are all very sad to see Caity go and wish her well as she further develops her skills and experience working in hospital in Aberdeen.

Gilzian Bryce has joined the practice as our new VDP to further her training and development as a post graduate.  Ryan will be her mentor for the next 12 months.

Correen has gone off in mat leave again and we obviously wish her well with the expansion of the Locke family.

We welcome another new member to the Belhaven Team. Caroline Turner begins her Belhaven career as a Dental Therapist joining our other part-time Therapist Kat and our part time Hygienist Pamela.

So its cheerio Caity, Hiya to Gilzian and Caroline and see you back soon Correen.

Rachael McCusker has now completed her training year at Belhaven as a VDP – a vocational dental practitioner.  We are all very sad to see Rachael go and wish her well as she begins her career as a fully fledged dental associate.

Caity Aitken has joined the practice as our new VDP – which means she is a fully qualified dentist, and in her first year she receives further training and mentoring.  Catherine will be her mentor for the next 12 months.

We also welcome Correen Locke back from her maternity leave. Correen has returned on a part-time basis and now works on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Things are going really well with the new build. We had hoped to be in by now, but as usually happens , things take longer than expected.

We will start work in the new premises on Monday 12th January 2015. The premises are only 5 minutes walk from our old building.

The new address is : Scarlow House Business Centre, 2 Scarlow Street, Port Glasgow PA14 5EY

Our telephone number remains the same – 01475 741186

Parking – there will eventually be a new car park across the road, but in the meantime parking can be found in one of the town centre car parks, all are just a few minutes walk from the practice. There are 2 disabled parking bays directly across the road.

Looking forward to showing off our new place to you all!

Belhaven Dental Surgery is proud to continue our association with the local Port Glasgow Juniors Community Sports Club

This year its the turn of the girls to sport the Belhaven name on their tops  – please join us in wishing them the very best of luck for the season

Lots has been happening at Belhaven.

One of our dentists Correen is expecting her first baby in August so finishes for her maternity leave at the start of July. Correen plans to return part time.

We will have 2 new dentists joining us in August to cover Correen’s maternity leave and for our expansion when we move.

Lyall Dominick currently works in Glasgow and will be joining us permanently.

Rachael McCusker will be joining us for a 1 year position as a VDP (vocational dental practitioner)r. Rachael is newly qualified and whilst she may need more time than some of our more experienced dentists, she is full of up to date knowledge. Catherine will be Rachael’s mentor to provide support and a second opinion or assistance whenever needed.

From August, until we move to the new premises Catherine will be reducing her clinical work to provide training and coordinate the practice relocation.

We were very fortunate to attract a huge volume of applicants for both positions and we knew that Lyall and Rachael would fit in well to our team and more importantly have the same ethos towards high quality treatment and patient care.

After a long period of planning, we are delighted to announce that we will be relocating later this year. We will be only moving along the road to Scarlow Street, (next door to the job centre/opposite Donnachie’s Bar). It’s only 500metres away, so hopefully no-one will get lost!

Our existing premises have served us well, and the surgery spaces are great, however now that we have 4 surgeries running, we have found that we really need a better space for waiting area and reception.

We are taking the opportunity to be part of what will be a business centre in the building in Scarlow Street and have been working with the architect to come up with a great purpose designed space for our new premises. The reception area will be much larger, with much better privacy for people to discuss matters with reception. We will also have a larger reception area and a dedicated office, staff room and decontamination room (where we clean and sterilise all our instruments).

This should not only make the practice a more comfortable area to be in for our patients, but also give our staff better support facilities to enable the practice to run smoothly.

All of the surgeries will be kitted out to the same high standards we have at the moment, and we will be adding an extra surgery.

We will keep you posted on timings, but we are aiming not to close at any point over the transition to the new premises. The move will likely be late October time.

Watch this space!

We have realised that as we have become busier that Ann needs an extra pair of hands at reception! A few of our nurses who are experienced in reception duties will therefore share the role of a second receptionist. This will mean that reception should run more smoothly and that patients calling the practice should find it easier to get through.

A new dental nurse Connie has joined our team this week, she already seems like she’s been with us for a while, which is always a great sign!