“Following the delivery of Rachel Reeves’s first Budget of the new Labour Party government, Practice Plan and Wesleyan Financial Services - have issued a response of the key points for dental professionals.
Iain Stevenson, Head of Dental, at Wesleyan Financial Services (of which Practice Plan is a part) says:
When Dr Amit Jilka bought Abbey Dental practice in 2012, he was working predominantly as an NHS dentist. However, he knew a mixed practice would be the best way for him to grow his business. “We have a fairly substantial NHS contract with a number of UDAs, so the contract value is so high that I didn't really want to part with that in terms of practice value,” he explains.
Although Amit was keen to add a private dentistry offering to the practice, he didn’t rush to do so. He continued to enhance his range of skills by training in implants and then sedation. Within two or three years of having bought the practice he was able to carry out increasing numbers of private treatment plans.
It was a desire to offer a wider range of cosmetic and private treatments to his patients that led him to take the decision as principal to give up his own NHS commitment and introduce a membership plan with Practice Plan. Thanks to Practice Plan’s years of experience, the conversion process went well, apart from a small dent to his ego! “We sent letters to all the patients that I had previously seen and just stated that I'd be going private thereafter and another dentist would be taking over,” he outlines. “Quite a lot of the NHS patients did go private with me. Surprisingly, there were some of the patients I thought would've gone with me who didn’t. It's always a bit hit and miss. You can't really predict who's going to go with you and who's not, “he says. “I think there was some fear that a lot of patients would be upset by the situation, and we did get a few patients that were upset, but it wasn't as many as I thought it would be. So clearly, I’m not as important as I thought I was!” he laughs. “In all seriousness, as we were still offering NHS services, they could remain with a practice they had grown to trust and still receive the care they needed.”
Separate facilities
A concern some practices express to me when considering a partial conversion is how to deal with the issue of both NHS and private patients attending the practice at the same time. Amit already had in mind an elegant solution to this at the time he converted. “We were building another private building, so we had a premises across the road that we were converting to fully private,” he says. “Which meant we felt we could offer both services and keep the patients separate within that structure. So, if NHS patients wanted more private dentistry, they could go to the other building.”
Benefits
Since introducing private dentistry and the membership plan, Amit has seen huge benefits to the team and the practice as a whole. “Since going private, we have substantially increased our revenue,” he reports. “We've also been able to develop a much larger team as we’re offering more and more different services. The skill mix of the team has increased significantly with our therapy team leading the way. We now have treatment coordinators that are able to scan and do sedation assessments. So just by making that move to private, we're offering loads of different services. This in turn has increased our team capabilities which means ultimately, we’re offering a much better service for our patients.”
Amit has continued to grow and develop the business. As well as the three buildings he now has at his site in Stone, Staffordshire (NHS, private and a separate hygiene building) he opened a five-surgery squat practice last year in nearby Stoke-on-Trent. This squat has the benefit of a top floor which houses conference rooms and a training academy. About three years ago Amit changed the focus of his dentistry and became an implant only dentist. The new premises in Stoke-on-Trent will allow him to run training courses and pursue his interest in mentoring others in implant dentistry.
“At the moment I do one week clinical and then the next week I'm completely admin only. So, I'm only working clinical every alternate week,” he explains. “Probably 95% of the clinical dentistry I'm doing is just mentoring and not really seeing my own patients.” Does he see himself moving away from hands on dentistry altogether? “I don't think I'll ever stop being a wet fingered dentist,” he admits. “I enjoy that aspect of it and I think as a mentor, you can't mentor unless you're in it and doing it. But I think seeing my own list of patients is almost coming to an end and I’m moving more towards being a full-time mentor and trainer.”
If you are interested in finding out more about how we help practices to become more profitable or you are looking to move from another provider, call 01691 684165 or visit practiceplan.co.uk/
About Amit
Amit Jilka is an award-winning dentist and one of the owners of Abbey House Dental. He has been developing the practice and its facilities since he bought it in 2012. He has had extensive training in dental implants and has been placing them for over 10 years.
Amit is the practice Clinical Lead and mentors other dentists in dental implants and sedation. He is a nationally accredited sedation mentor for dentists in IV and RA sedation. His practice is now limited to dental implantology.
Amit has grown his dental practice from a two-surgery NHS practice to having 19 surgeries over four sites offering the full range of dental disciplines. He has grown his team from four staff members to over 100 and recently launched his own training academy.
About Josie
Josie Hutchings has been a Regional Support Manager at Practice Plan for 22 years and has more than 30 years’ experience in the dental industry. Practice Plan is the UK’s leading provider of practice-branded patient membership plans, partnering with over 2,000 dental practices and offering a wide range of business support services.
Is your patient journey the best it can be? Are you confident that new patients joining your practice will be wowed by their experience? Could you do better? Practice Plan Regional Support Manager, Louise Anderson, suggests areas to consider for improvement.
As appointments at NHS practices become scarcer, more patients are turning to private practices for their oral health care. Many of them will have been long standing NHS patients and now that they are being asked to pay higher fees for their dentistry, they may have certain pre-conceived ideas about the sort of service they can expect from a private practice.
On Practice Plan’s recent Workshop Tour, Dr Barry Oulton showed attendees how they could offer their patients a first-class service without spending a lot of money. To be able to achieve this he emphasised it was important not just to meet their expectations, but to exceed them.
Take a step back
To state the obvious, before you can start making improvements you need to understand what’s already there. This will involve taking a step back and looking objectively at how your practice team works.
Ask yourself, “What impression would I get of my team and the practice if I were visiting for the first time?” If you’re to get the most out of this exercise, then you have to be prepared for some disappointments. After all, we’re looking for ways to improve things, so there will be things you see your team doing that you know can be done better.
Define what good looks like to you
To focus the review and make it easier for you to assess your team, it’s helpful to first develop your own ideas of what you would expect as a new patient. That way you can gauge your team against the blueprint of how you would like things to be.
It might be helpful to consider these five areas:
For each category, write down a few points that you feel are what you would expect from a first-class team. You can then use that as your benchmark and rank your team members against it.
Come up with the standards that you would expect from a team that meets your definition of first-class. This is the sort of exercise that need only take five minutes of your time, so it’s not something you need to pore over for hours!
For example, with appearance – as a minimum, your team members should look clean and tidy. If you have a uniform/workwear is everyone sticking to it or have some people gone rogue and started wearing their own thing?
Punctuality – is everyone at work and ready to START when you open? Or do some team members stroll in on the stroke of 9am and then spend the next 10 minutes sorting themselves out? What about breaks? If you’re lucky enough to get them (and you should!), do some people take longer than they’re entitled to?
Public interaction with team members – is everyone in the team treated respectfully by their colleagues when they’re in public? Or is there passive aggression or antagonism on display for all to see? Patients should not be aware of any personal differences between team members as any clashes should be put to one side in public. Would open hostility be on your list of attributes for a first-class team?
Behaviour/mindset – complementary to the way your team members interact with each other is their attitude to work. Are they enthusiastic and willing or do they sulk and whine? Do they behave in a way that suggests they enjoy their job and want to do well at it or are they just going through the motions. In short, does their attitude and the way they behave enhance or hinder the work of the team.
Skills/capabilities – foes every member of your team have the right skills and capabilities to be able to do a good job? If not, any skill gaps and training needs you have identified during this exercise can be addressed and put right. By doing that hopefully you’ll not only improve performance but job satisfaction for the individual too.
How do they match up?
Once you’ve completed your assessment, you should have a clear picture of the team as a whole. So, do your team members live up to how you defined the behaviours and attitudes you felt marked out teams as first-class when you set your benchmark? It’s likely you’ll have a mixed result, even if you previously regarded everyone as providing a first-class service. There’s always room for improvement, even if it’s only a minor detail.
Another characteristic of a first-class team is constantly striving for improvement. When Sir Dave Brailsford took over at British Cycling, he looked at every aspect of the operation to discover where improvements could be made, no matter how small. It was uncovering every opportunity to achieve ‘marginal gains’ that turned an also-ran team into a world beater. On their own, each marginal gain was negligible, but when they were all added together they made a spectacular difference to the performance of the team.
So, even if you found that your team currently provides elements of a budget standard of service, by repeating this exercise regularly, you can continue to make small changes to refine and elevate things so that, over time, things become truly first class.
If you are interested in finding out more about how we help practices to become more profitable come along to stand K50 at Dentistry Show Birmingham, on 17th and 18th May for a chat. Otherwise, call 01691
About Louise
Louise Anderson is a Regional Support Manager with Practice Plan. She has more than 30 years’ experience in dentistry which includes 15 years as a group manager for five dental practices. Practice Plan is the UK’s leading provider of practice-branded patient membership plans, partnering with over 2,000 dental practices and offering a wide range of business support services.
The aviation industry has the best safety record of all forms of transport. This is maintained by meticulous checking and attention to detail. By borrowing a few techniques from flying, dental practices can improve the efficiency of their examinations, save time and increase treatment uptake. Practice Plan Regional Support Manager, Selina Alexander explains how.
We all talk about wanting to get good value for money. But what does that really mean? Practice Plan Regional Support Manager, Jo Phillpot, talks about the importance of taking some time to evaluate whether you’re getting the best value for money from your suppliers.
Where there is no vision, the people perish - Proverbs 29:18
As a practice owner do you update your team regularly on how the business is going? Can you remember the last time you attended a team meeting? If you answered ‘no’ to those questions, then maybe it’s time you reflected on whether you’re fulfilling your role as a leader within the practice. Practice Plan Area Manager, Suki Singh, explains the importance of leaders being more accessible and sharing their vision with their team.
With all the turmoil caused by the pandemic, the Truss government, rising energy prices and the war in Ukraine, the economic landscape has seen some change over the last few years. So how has all this affected the practice sales market? Practice Plan Sales and Marketing Director, Nigel Jones, spoke to MD of Frank Taylor and Associates, Lis Hughes, to find out more about how things are faring for dentists wanting to buy or sell a practice.
With the issues of patient access to dentistry showing no signs of resolving themselves, could now be the time to consider opening a squat practice? Is it a realistic option for dentists to own their own practice? Mike Blenkharn of UNW, and dental business coach, Chris Barrow, discussed this topic during a session recently at the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show, hosted by Practice Plan Sales and Marketing Director, Nigel Jones.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, at least in so far as dentistry is concerned, leaves me pondering. Is it a credible attempt at identifying issues and proposing solutions? Or a thinly veiled attempt to win the approval of a public largely unaware of the detailed reality?
Whether you’re a mixed practice or fully private, Practice Plan Regional Support Manager Tracy Webb, explains how having a membership plan can pay dividends.
Parliament may finally be debating what to do about NHS contract reform, but for many dentists and practice owners it’s all too late.
The most recent oral evidence sessions of the Health and Social Care Select Committee into dentistry left those watching with little doubt that any hoped-for improvements in the state of NHS dentistry were a long way off.
Are you struggling to recruit and retain good staff? Are you thinking about leaving the NHS and moving into private practice? Is your practice being affected by the cost-of-living crisis?
Questions! Questions! Questions!
Practice Plan Regional Support Manager, Chris Nicholson, talks about the importance of increasing understanding in helping patients to maintain their own oral health to prevent future dental problems.
Practice Plan Area Sales Manager, Suki Singh, gives five reasons why now is a great time to make the move to private dentistry.
Jayne Gibson shares four key questions to ask yourself whether your plan provider is right for you or if it’s time to move on...
When you’ve been working with your plan provider for a while, it can be easy not to notice that you may not be getting the best service.
Following a record year in 2022 for patients on plan, and as more practices decide to introduce membership plans and join the Practice Plan family, we’re adding some extra pairs of hands to the team to ensure we maintain a great level of customer service.
Practice Plan Head of Sales, Zoe Close, talks to CSR expert and coach, Mark Topley, about the part CSR can play in helping practices beat the recruitment and retention crisis.
Donna Hall examines what practice teams need to look at when choosing the right plan provider to work with.
Practice Plan Sales Manager, Zoe Close suggests that, contrary to popular opinion, we may be entering a time of great opportunity for dentistry.
Zoe Close speaks to dental recruitment specialist, Emma Anastasi, about ways to recruit top team members in your practice… One of the many ways in which COVID-19 has changed our world has been the impact it’s had on workforces worldwide.
Dentistry's Got talents - Which ones, exactly? By @DentistGoneBadd