Emergency Care Policy - Cornwall
Patients who have an out of hours (OOH) dental emergency should telephone the Dental Out of Hours Service at Cornwall & Isles of Scilly PCT Dental Services
| The telephone number is: | 01872 354375 |
If appropriate, the patient will be referred for an appointment at a treatment centre.
During Practice Hours
Patients with urgent problems are requested to contact the practice as early in the day as possible.
Every effort is made to accommodate patients with problems as soon as possible.
Every effort is made to see a patient with problems at a time convenient to them; however for emergency treatment the pre-booked schedule may not always allow for this.
Emergency appointments are kept open to help accommodate patients with problems. These are usually only allocated up to 24 hours ahead.
Patients with booked appointments are seen with priority over patients accommodated later.
Patients of the practice are given priority over people who are not regular patients with regard to allocation of emergency appointments.
Although every effort is made to accommodate patients with urgent problems at their usual practice branch, there may be occasions when to accommodate a patient more promptly they may need to be seen at a different branch.
When there are no available emergency or cancellation appointments, patients of the practice are offered the opportunity to attend and wait to be seen as soon as a dentist’s schedule allows this. This may involve a significant wait at busy times.
Whilst every effort is made to accommodate people who are not patients of the practice with problems, there may be occasions when the practice is unable to offer them a suitable appointment.
In such circumstances they may be advised to contact Devon PCT’s dental helpline on 0845 002 0034.
