Practice profile
Pheonix rises I
Everything in the practice, down to the cabinets, was replaced
t’s probably the moment every practice owner dreads – the phone call from the police in the middle of the night.
And, for Niall Sloan, it was
just the beginning of one of the most testing periods in his professional life. The owner and principal dentist at Carfin Dental Care arrived at his practice at 2am on Friday 7 December 20ı2 after fielding a phone call informing him that the tanning salon next door to his practice had caught fire. When he arrived at the
scene, the fire was under control and, from first impres- sions, it appeared that the practice had survived any major damage. And, when he was allowed access a couple of hours later – albeit only armed with a torch – he started to hope that they might not be out of action for too long. However, returning to the
practice in the early morning sunshine, it became apparent that what had looked like minor smoke damage and a layer of soot in the early hours, was actually much more serious. Virtually every surface in the practice was covered in a film of, what looked and felt like tar, rendering all the equip- ment unusable, not to mention unsafe. Niall’s first thought was for
his patients and he quickly got in touch with the health board to arrange for any emer- gency patients to be seen
Although smoke damage from a fire in an adjacent unit rendered Carfin Dental Care’s facilities unusable, a wholesale refurbishment over two months has brought big benefits, writes Bruce Oxley
elsewhere. Appointments were cancelled for that day but a colleague in Motherwell – Thomas McGuiness from Dalziel Dental Practice – kindly let Niall use a surgery at his practice for three days the following week to see patients. However, the scene at the
Carfin practice was quickly turning from a clean up to a full-scale refit and it was clear that an alternative location was needed while the practice was literally taken apart and put back together again. Niall got in touch with Mike
Devine, director of salaried primary care dental services at NHS Lanarkshire, and enquired about the health board’s mobile dental unit. Despite being out of commis- sion for a few months, the surgery was in good condition and they managed to get a driver – a local taxi driver who had the right licence – who agreed to drive it from Coathill Hospital in the morning to the car park in front of the stricken practice, and back to the hospital in the evening. For the next two months
Niall and his two associates worked split shifts in the van, seeing patients from morning until night. The neighbouring hairdresser, which was untouched by the fire, let patients wait in their waiting area as the van could only fit one patient at a time. The proximity of the van meant that Niall could oversee
“The practice is brighter and more colourful than ever before”
36 Scottish Dental magazine
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