Australasian Dentist Issue 93

92 AUSTRALASIAN DENTIST SURGERY DESIGN & FITOUT T he highly respected St John organisation, perhaps best known for the St John Ambulance Service and its GP and Urgent Care centres, is expanding its dental service to provide quality affordable dental care to key centres in Western Australia. St John opened two new dental clinics during 2021, one in Midland and another in Cannington in Perth’s populous growth corridors, with two more planned. This brings the current total to five dental clinics co-located with its medical centres in and around Perth, furthering St John’s aim of supporting the wellbeing of local communities with holistic health care. The expanded dental service includes the state-of-the-art dental clinics and medical centres which became part of St John when it bought the former Apollo Health services. The dental clinics are all co-locatedwith St John Urgent Care Centres and General Practice clinics, delivering wrap-around primary care for Western Australians. The new dental clinics at Cannington and Midland join existing facilities in Joondalup, Armadale and Cockburn, creating a city-wide network of centres strategically located in regions with high need. The recent fit-outs at Midland and Cannington have similar floor plans and were successfully transformed into dental clinics by local medical and dental fit- out specialist, Bill Elsegood of Dental Intelligence, Perth. The transition from Apollo Health to St John Dental was made seamless, when Apollo Health’s Principal Dentist, Dr Lawrence Chan stayed on at the Armadale facility and joined St John Dental. Dr Chan was also able to provide useful advice in setting up the new Cannington and Midland dental centres, having previously worked closely with A-dec and Dental Intelligence in the establishment of the impressive Apollo Dental Centre at Armadale. St John Head of Dentistry, Dr Mark Brazier, who has a background as a naval Dental Officer, said the aim was to provide consistency and uniformity across all of St John’s dental surgeries. This included the choice of equipment, with the reliability of A-dec chairs being a particularly strong point and supporting Dr Brazier’s 25 years working with the brand, including in challenging and remote locations such as on Royal Australian Navy ships. He said the new generation A-dec St John expands WA dental network chairs in the new and recently acquired clinics had advanced in terms of comfort, features andmoremodern delivery systems which had been well accepted by staff and patients alike. “We certainly haven’t had patients complain and our staff are really happy using A-dec. The upholstery on the chairs has a soft and quality feel. Ergonomically they arewell designedandeasy to set upand program, enabling the A-dec touchpad’s instrument and chair positioning settings to be saved.” The new clinics feature A-dec 500 chairs with ‘Continental’ style delivery systems which were recommended by A-dec’s WA Territory manager, Joe Minervini based on their ergonomic benefits to the dental team. Mr Minervini has also helped establish dental facilities in other WA institutions, including the newPerth Children’s Hospital and specialist teaching and public health clinics in the Oral Health Centre of Western Australia at the University of Western Australia. Dr Brazier said providing excellent qualitystaff,qualityequipmentandfacilities would help support St John’s philosophy of supporting local communities with access to the best holistic health care. “One thing that is really important to us is ethical dentistry and putting patients first. Our dental philosophy is the same as that of St John Urgent Care Centres and General Practice clinics. “The St John brand is highly regarded and important to us we maintain that reputation across our dental facilities as well,” Dr Brazier said. u