Standing column
This week in the office: the mailbox
Correspondence is the only thing this office accumulates, so the week has a fixed shape for handling it and a fixed day for writing the log up.
Where scripting is available, the current weekday is flagged on the strip and in the list.
- MondayThe mailbox is read at 08:30 and again before the desk closes. Post is opened at the desk. Both are logged with the date in and the date on.
- TuesdayAnything that arrived sealed and addressed to the practice goes on unopened, and the log records that it did.
- WednesdayMessages that belong to a file are referenced to it. The message is not copied on to the file; only the reference is recorded.
- ThursdayAnything sent to the office that should not have been is deleted, and the sender is told so in writing the same day.
- FridayThe correspondence log is written up for the week and the oldest entries past their keeping period are removed.
- SaturdayThe mailbox is read once. Nothing is answered, logged or forwarded.
- SundayNothing is handled. The log stands as Friday left it.
This website
What these pages do and do not request
This site is six static files served as files. It sets no cookies, stores nothing in your browser, runs no analytics, carries no tracking of any kind, and has no third-party script, no embedded video and no embedded map. The small maps and charts on these pages are drawn as vector graphics inside the pages themselves for that reason.
There is one request to another party, and it should be stated plainly: the pages ask fonts.googleapis.com for a stylesheet and fonts.gstatic.com for the two typefaces the pages are set in. Making that request tells Google the address of the page requesting it, as any request to any server does. Nothing else leaves these pages. There are no forms that submit anywhere: the two working sheets — the slot capacity sheet and the retention review helper — do their arithmetic in your browser, send nothing, and keep nothing.
Because there are no cookies, there is no cookie notice, and no list of cookie names, expiry times and purposes. A table of that kind on a site with no cookies in it would describe something that does not exist.
The office
What the office holds about a practice
The office is administrative. What it holds is addresses and references: a file index giving a shelf number or a folder name, a diary of references, rooms and times, numbered purchase orders with supplier codes, goods-in sheets, a loan sheet, a query log and a correspondence log. It holds the engagement letter, the session templates, the approved supplier list and the access list the practice has given it.
What the office does not hold is anything a practitioner records. That material stays in the practice’s own system. Where the office has been given access to that system under the engagement letter, it works inside it and leaves everything there; it takes no copy to its own shelves, its own drive or its own mailbox. Anything of that kind that is emailed to the office is deleted and the sender told so in writing the same day. That is why the writing to the office note asks for a subject line and a reference and nothing more.
Names reach the office in two narrow places: the name against an appointment in the diary, and the names on the access list the practice supplies. Neither is used for anything except the work the engagement letter describes. Neither is sold, shared, published or sent anywhere.
Keeping periods
How long the office keeps its own records
Two different things are being described here and they should not be confused. Retention periods for a practice’s files are set by the practice, and the office only does arithmetic on them. The periods below are the office’s own, for the office’s own records, and are the ones it can actually speak to.
| Record | Where it is kept | Kept until |
|---|---|---|
| Correspondence log | Office mailbox and the weekly written log | Twelve months from the entry date, then the entry is removed on a Friday. |
| Order records | Order book held at the registered office | As long as the engagement runs, and then for the period the engagement letter states. |
| Goods-in and query logs | Order book, alongside the orders they answer | With the order they belong to. |
| File index and loan sheet | Office shelves, and a copy to the practice on handback | Given to the practice at handback; the office copy is destroyed after it is acknowledged. |
| Mail wrongly sent to the office | Nowhere | Deleted on receipt, with a note in the log that it arrived and was deleted. |
Nothing in this section is advice to a practice about its own obligations. It describes this office’s own filing and nothing wider.
Asking
Asking what the office holds, and correcting it
Write to office@svdixon.space and say which practice and, if you have one, which reference. The office will say what it holds against that reference and where it is kept. Where the material is in a practice’s own system, the office will say so and name the practice, because the practice and not the office is the one holding it.
Corrections are made in writing and the correction is noted against the entry it changed, so the record shows both that it was wrong and when it was put right. An entry is never quietly overwritten. Post reaches the desk at the registered office below and is opened on weekday mornings only.
Colophon
Company particulars
- Registered name
- SV DIXON LTD
- Company number
- 17407553
- D-U-N-S number
- 235087154
- Incorporated
- 18 August 2026
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- SIC code
- 86101, hospital activities — the registration under which this administrative and contract work is carried on
- Registered office
- 31 Glebelands Road, Sale, M33 6LH, United Kingdom
- Office email
- office@svdixon.space