Page 41 - RADC 2020
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DENTAL CENTRE
Moving into
the brand
new Dental
Centre
Larkhill 2020
Mrs L Worthington, RDH
Larkhill Garrison is a large garrison west
of Durrington village and 10 miles from Salisbury, accessible via The Packway. Together with Bulford and Tidworth it is rapidly expanding and has been part of the Army Basing Programme (ABP) which is now approaching completion.
In 2016, lots of planning and meetings were held about a brand new Medical and Dental Centre to be built next to the existing one. The extensive new build was to be designed ensuring that all room layouts and equipment installations complied with CQC and HTM01-05 regulations.
Finally, after numerous site surveys, building planning, advisory services, and space planning, it happened. On Friday
6th July 2018; DPHC, Army Basing,
and Aspire were joined by the NHS, representatives from Larkhill Garrison, and the local councillor for the Durrington and Larkhill ward for a literal “groundbreaking” ceremony at the Medical and Dental Centre construction site.
This exciting new building had been in the pipeline for a few years and now was finally happening along with many other new builds. It was really interesting to see it all come together. It changed every
day. I had a great view of it from my little hygiene surgery and enjoyed seeing it all come together, although at times our whole building would shake from the work going on around us.
As part of the team at Dental Centre Larkhill, this was indeed an exciting project. This was to become the largest military Dental Centre in the region, and within Defence, to be collocated with a military and NHS medical practice. The Dental Centre would be a twelve-chair centre fitted with beautiful brand-new A-Dec chairs, a huge waiting area, a large CSSD room with a lab inside, plenty of storage for instruments, space for two lockable COSSH cabinets, and a dedicated OHE room. There would be a large reception area which would include the SDO office, Practice Managers (PM) office, and room for a deputy PM and 2 receptionists. Also, within the centre would be a large conference room, kitchen/dining area, and changing rooms with showers to be shared with the medics.
This was a huge building operation and for many months there was a sea of builders and engineers appearing from every angle. It was an extremely professional and well organised operation but it just didn’t seem
Breaking the ground
possible that one day we would be in there. However, with a lot of planning and direction from Aspire Defence Capital Works (ADCW), Army Basing Programme (ABP), and the brilliant MDSS it all came together. As it had been located near to the world heritage
site of Stonehenge, the buildings external appearances were low-lying with an inclined canopy pitched roof which had been designed at a lower level than the main roof to visually reduce its height and mass.
In October 2019, Major Beth Stapleton arrived, posted in as SDO, and straight away Maj Beth had her “new Dental Centre” hat on. She had us organising the old centre to within an inch of its life so that we wouldn’t be taking old stuff with us. We did a lot of chucking out, shredding, organising files, and having everything put in place ready
for the move, in addition to seeing the occasional patient!
We started packing up the old Dental Centre in January 2020, while still seeing patients, and as the weeks went by, we were busy laminating documents to go into each surgery in the new build. I don’t think we have ever laminated so much. Twelve surgeries with all the latest policies and information to be displayed took a lot of organising, printing and laminating.
At the end of January, we were permitted to enter the new building under the watchful eye of the project managers. We were
able to take over an autoclave from the
old building to make sure it fitted into the new space in the new CSSD room as the PDO and Maj Stapleton were convinced it would not fit. It was a rather large vacuum autoclave which was quite heavy.
How are we going to get it over to the new build we asked ourselves? Dr. Mel Newberry came up with a brilliant idea of putting it on the DERK trolley, after careful removal of all the emergency drugs and oxygen tank our chariot awaited. So far so fabulous, as the autoclave fit on it perfectly, and off we went. As we set off for a short route along The Packway to the new build on a dreary wet Wednesday morning
Off to the new build!
RADC BULLETIN 2020 39