I think this might be my sixth week back at work since beginning back to see patients on the 8th June and I’m certainly existing in what is an insane, ridiculous and holy uncertain work pattern.
At the present time, in our practice, we are insanely busy.
There are many factors which could be causing this but the best description I’ve had from my friend Jason Wong is the ‘Christmas effect’.
People have had the longest ‘Christmas holiday’ they’ve ever had, to think about things, look at themselves in the mirror and to not go anywhere and they are now ready to have things done.
You know how it works after Christmas when many people come out wanting new furniture, holidays, conservatories and cars and the same thing is happening in dentistry and certainly in our type of dentistry.
Just at the minute the demand is difficult to keep up with but so is the turbulence and uncertainty.
And so a couple of tips that I’ve learnt over the past few weeks which you might be able to apply to your practice or to any other walk of life that you might be in.
Tuesday is my Surgery day, this week a large surgical case had to cancel on Monday pm at short notice due to an illness to the patients father (Covid not sure, maybe).
That leaves Tuesday afternoon entirely free at short notice.
The best thing you can do with unplanned downtime is to use it as effectively as possible to make you feel better.
The first thing we did was bring patients forward and increase the level of service for patients who were already waiting.
The patients we saw on Tuesday afternoon were in fact hugely grateful to be seen for one reason or another and they’re able to be put into treatment further down the line.
If I’m unable to bring patients forward then I make sure that I’m entirely up to date with my admin and any future planning that I wanted to do.
When I find I’m up to date with that then I’m able to do some exercise, leave work earlier than usual on the bike and ride a bit further home.
I’ll want that later on and that should not be lost.
The other thing I can do is get home earlier and see my family and continue to enjoy the cemented relationships with them that we were able to develop throughout lockdown (I’ll want that later on at least as much as the fitness).
Getting over the anxiety of the uncertainly when you had a system previously which was like clockwork (or certainly more like clockwork than it is now) is one of my ways of being able to manage and survive through this ridiculous time.
If the flow of patients to our practice remains the same for any prolonged period of time then new systems, structures and work practices will have to be brought in together with new staff and capacity but it might not and therefore we’ll have to box clever and that takes creativity and resilience and adaptability.
Only the set of skills that I’ve talked about forever since I've been writing this blog that we need to develop in our children because the world that they’re growing up into now is marked and scarred in way that it wasn’t before.
Blog Post Number - 2433
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