25 Jan 2016  •  Blog, NHS  •  4min read By  • Zoe Sharp

How we Made the Move From NHS to Private Dentistry – a Case Study

Zoe Sharp is Practice Manager at Alexandra Dental Care. She explains how the confines of running an NHS contract led the practice to convert to private dentistry and how it benefited the team and patients.

“For us, there were just too many things we were compromising on – the time we could spend with our patients, the quality of care we were offering and the range of treatments we could offer – and that’s all because we were under intense pressure to meet the demand of our onerous UDA contract”.

It came to the point where we didn’t want to have to make these compromises anymore; we wanted to work in a much calmer and relaxed environment where we could offer our patients the high-quality service they deserved without feeling under pressure to meet the requirements of something that was out of our control.

We realised private practice was our only option, but the initial thought of losing the regularity of an NHS income left us feeling quite nervous and unsettled, plus we had so many other questions we just didn’t know the answers to.

How would we go private?
Would a change affect the job security of our staff?
Would we keep enough patients to keep afloat?

We just didn’t know whether we were making the right decision and, if we were, how to go about putting the wheels in motion.

We soon learned that a patient membership plan could help us maintain the regularity of an income and, if we chose the right provider we could have an experienced pair of hands to support us through the transition. We wanted a plan provider with the experience, knowledge, expertise and track record to lead us through the change and wanted them to offer us guidance and support at every step, but still leave us in control of the process.

Not much to ask, but we knew from our very first meeting with our Practice Plan regional representative, Josie Hutchings, that she could offer us just that.

She took the time to listen to our situation and really got under the skin of who we are and what we wanted to achieve, so instantly we knew we would be driving the change, but with her support.

Practice Plan supported us in setting our own fees, devising the plan of how to communicate the change to the wider team and our patients, plus much more.

Josie was even there on the day we started the conversion to support us!

She delivered the team’s training session to ensure they were confident in the plan and talking to patients about the change. Although we did everything at our pace and the way we wanted to, she gave us the support and the foundation to build on, supporting us every step of the way.

The move to private was definitely worthwhile!

Practice life is just what we envisaged it to be when we set about going private – less stressful, less pressured and much more relaxed and patient focused! We’re no longer rushing around trying to meet the UDA requirements of an NHS contract, but instead we’re in control of how we run the practice.

We can allow as much time as we need to treat our patients and we’re able to offer a higher quality of care and greater range of treatments that we just weren’t able to whilst we were under the NHS.

And it’s safe to say we wouldn’t be here without the ongoing support of Practice Plan.

If you’re thinking about the possibility of a future outside the NHS, just evaluating your options can help! For an informal chat about how we can help you to do that, call 01691 684165 or download our FREE Guide to Leaving the NHS.

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