What's happening at Belhaven Dental Surgery

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!

We have made some changes to our opening hours. Ryan is now seeing patients until 1830 on a Tuesday and we hope this will reduce patients wait to get a later appointment. Catherine, Ryan and our hygienist will now be seeing patients until 2pm on a Friday.