The Henry Bloom Noble Healthcare Trust has provided a grant for new facilities at the Community Dental Service in Westmoreland Road.
‘It’s all about equity of care’, says Beverley McClung, specialist in special care dentistry.
Beverley works at the Community Dental Service which offers high quality, preventative-focused dental care for patients who find it difficult to use general dental services. Their objective is to reduce inequalities in oral health and improve access to dental services to priority patient groups, vulnerable adults and children in the Isle of Man. The service receives around 1,000 referrals a year.
She explains: ‘The service is a safety net for those with complex needs that other dentists can’t accommodate.’
It’s a subject she clearly feels passionate about and she approached the Henry Bloom Noble Healthcare Trust to help her to provide the best possible facilities for her patients, specifically those who are wheelchair users.
She already had the use of a Diaco dental chair, essentially a specially designed dental platform. Patients can remain in their wheelchair which is wheeled onto the platform and the platform then lifts and tilts the chair, putting them into an ideal position to receive treatment. However, the platform is bulky and there was no suitable room to put it in so it had to be moved in and out of a storeroom whenever it was needed, making it harder to arrange appointment times for patients.
The Trust provided a grant of £33,000 to carry out building work which included taking down a wall to make a dedicated treatment room for wheelchair users. The grant covered everything including plumbing, electrics and decorating and the provision of some new dental equipment. The building work was carried out by Descon and Meditech supplied the equipment.
The result is a light, bright space with plenty of room to move around and provide treatment, with the platform sitting in the middle: ‘Everything moves around the patient: the patient is at the centre of things here,’ says Beverley.
As well as making it a much pleasanter and more comfortable experience it also means that she can look after more patients here who would otherwise have had to go to Noble’s for their treatment. In addition the service also has a bariatric chair for patients who exceed the weight limit for standard dental chairs and which the platform can also accommodate.
Malcolm Clague, a Trustee of the Henry Bloom Noble Healthcare Trust, says ‘The Trustees are very pleased to provide the funding for this project which makes dental care more accessible and comfortable for those unable to safely access the standard dental chair in use in dental surgeries around the island, particularly patients who are wheelchair bound. The Trustees were also impressed by the dedication and determination of the staff in driving their vision through, enabling them to fully meet the needs of this group of patients in a timely way within a warm and friendly environment.
‘We wish them well for the future.’