Zoe Close talks to Deborah Parson about converting during a pandemic.
ZC: Hi Deborah, it’s been nearly 18 months since you made the move to private dentistry. What were the reasons for this?
DP: Well, a lot of it was down to the fact that the dentists were just utterly sick and tired of working under the NHS. They didn’t want to be dealing with bureaucracy anymore, and they were fed up with the unnecessary paperwork they were having to deal with. They just wanted to concentrate their time on the patients and on providing them with a top-quality service.
ZC: It’s natural for practice staff and dentists to be apprehensive about making such a move. Was this the case for you?
DP: Yes, we did have concerns. We are a very rural practice, and we know the majority of our patients very well. We were worried how some patients might view our move. We wanted them to understand it was being made to improve the quality of treatment and the quality of a work/life balance for the staff. And we did have a few worries that some of the non-paying NHS patients would not be able to afford to pay privately. With the help of Practice Plan and our regional support manager, Lynne Clark, we were able to have the right conversations with our patients and the majority were very supportive of the move.
ZC: You were preparing to make the move in April 2020 and then all of a sudden, the pandemic hit and we were locked down. How was that initial period when you first made the move?
DP: We made the decision at the end of February and everything was being finalised in anticipation of the change in April. Then, all of a sudden, the pandemic was starting to become more serious, there were talks of lockdowns and we were starting to think, ‘what have we done?’. We were getting a bit worried when the practices shut, but we only felt that way for a short period. We quickly realised that having patients on payment plans would help us through that period of closure. That was a huge relief to us. We didn’t know an awful lot about Practice Plan, but we knew they had a lot of experience in conversions, and what appealed to us was that we would always have control and be able to make our own decisions about how we wanted to operate. Our experience with Lynne has been brilliant right from the very start. She set everything in motion for us, talked us through the whole process and helped with sending letters and talking our patients through the move. She was always there to lean on for support and throughout the pandemic she was always checking in to see how things were going. It was great to know that the support was available. Along with this, we have also received first class support from Nigel Jones, Practice Plan’s sales and marketing director, who was very helpful during our conversion and went above and beyond.
ZC: You’ve had a while to see the full impact of your conversion. How have things gone?
DP: Ever since we made the move things have gone very well, even better than we expected, and it really does show that we were right to make that decision. When we were talking the other day, we said we should have done this sooner, maybe even 10 years ago. The dentists are less stressed in and out of practice and they can concentrate on providing a top service, and from my point of view, I can actually concentrate on getting things done rather than worrying about something like a big NHS audit landing on my desk. We have been inundated with new people asking to register with us, and many of these have been recommendations from existing patients. This is really encouraging, and goes to show that our concerns about how our patients would react to making the move were unfounded.
ZC: If you had any advice for a practice in the NHS, what would it be?
DP: We would say that if you have thought about making the move then take the plunge and don’t be afraid. There is a lot of hard work that goes into it, but very quickly you will realise that it really is worth it. What we would say is give yourself plenty of time to put things in place and then go for it, you won’t regret it.