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Published: Tuesday, 03 March 2020 07:44

Written by News Editor

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The scandal of patients left in the lurch and dentists left unpaid following the liquidation of Finest Dental continues to grow. GDPUK has monitored an increasing number of reports from those involved which raise serious issues that should concern the General Dental Council, who have a statutory obligation to both regulate the profession and protect patients.

Patient

One recent report from thisismoney.co.uk[i] told of a group of dental patients, who have been left frustrated and confused after the chain of private dentists closed without warning – with many having paid thousands of pounds in advance. Finest Dental, they reported, has ceased trading but hasn’t formally gone into liquidation yet, leaving thousands of customers not knowing where to turn and unsure of where they stand. 

One patient, Katie, is currently halfway through her treatment for Invisalign braces and has already paid £2,000 to Finest Dental via monthly instalments and these are still set to come out of her account to make up the next £2,000 she owes and she has been advised by her bank not to cancel them yet. 

As the company has not filed for liquidation, it has left its many customers in limbo and means they have all been advised by their banks to continue with their standing orders as, officially, the company is still trading. This means that customers are still having money taken out of their bank accounts - but not receiving their appointments or treatments. Others have already paid thousands in advance, meaning they are left out of pocket, without knowing if they will get the service they paid for - or their money back. 

This is Money tried to contact Finest Dental but all phone lines were cut off.  They also contacted the GDC who said they were aware of the situation but couldn’t comment on it publicly. They did say that they were advising patients to pursue local resolution first which consists of contacting Citizens Advice, the CQC or asking for legal advice. The GDC added that, for those who have paid money towards their treatment or their treatment has started, they are advised to contact their bank. 

Dentist

GDPUK has also been contacted by a dentist who worked at a Finest Dental practice, who told us that staff and dentists find themselves ‘hung out to dry’ and without a job and yet concerned for all the patients for whom they have tried to care. He described the situation as ‘an embarrassing scandal and likely fraud of the highest order’. Despite this the General Dental Council has failed so far to act, either to protect the interests of patients or the reputation of the profession.

The facts, as outlined to GDPUK, are that the practices were all closed due to non payment of the staff at end of January.  Dentists have not been paid since December or before in some cases. No communication at all has been made to patients despite a promise that this would occur. Consequently patients continue to turn up for appointments scheduled many weeks or months ago. Dentists are denied access to their records and radiographs by management and so they cannot contact patients. 

Finest Dental  has also allowed the high tech laboratory to die by refusing to buy it materials or pay the staff. Consequently there were at the time of closure about 900 incomplete items of individual laboratory work. Problems appear to have started at the end of October when the Finest Dental Invisalign account was closed due to non payment of the bill. The implant suppliers, Nobel, also stopped supplying components, which went some way to explaining why the laboratory could not complete the work. 

On Sunday 9th February dentists were informed that the practices would close immediately and that the business would be liquidated, leaving self employed contractor dentists unable to make claims and so suffer losses of great magnitude. GDPUK has been told that the situation is ‘at best unclear and at  worst foggy’.  The dentists do not have access to the premises. In most cases they have had to find new work urgently. In doing so they will contract to a new business and it will not be within their control to decide to see patients previously seen at Finest Dental. Our source conceludes: “Regrettably the fact remains patients cannot be seen under the Finest Dental label at this time, and it is likely that this is a de facto permanent closure.” 

NOTICE FROM FINEST DENTAL WEBSITE AS OF 24 FEB 20

Dear Patients

Although we have worked tirelessly to ensure the immediate continuation of the practices for both staff & patients alike, unfortunately at this time we are still in the process of agreeing suitable options for patients to continue treatment. We are currently speaking to a selection of other dental operators to negotiate the continuation of patient care as well as approaching existing patient finance providers to request support in opening sites and continue existing patient treatment only.

We will update the Finest Dental website as soon as a solution is found. They then go on to describe how a refund may be claimed.

[i] https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-8013289/Finest-Dental-company-closed-money-back.html

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