It was like opening the sluice gate of a dam

John Lane, from John Lane Dental Practice in Liverpool, talks about the challenges he faced when the new contract was introduced, and what he did to improve the work life for him and his practice team.

 

So, why did you want to ‘go private’?

 

The prompt to convert came from the new contract coming in.  I was determined to give the new contract a good crack of the whip.  From the work outlook in the first three months, I could see that I would be falling short of the UDA target. What we needed to do then was increase the number of patients coming through the practice.  So we opened up the books to new patients, and it was like opening the sluice gate of a dam.  Immediately, we were swamped by requests from new patients and they weren’t particularly pleasant to deal with. 

 

It was only a matter of a week or two before my reception staff were on the verge of walking out due to the amount of verbal abuse they were being given because they couldn’t provide appointments within five minutes.  Really that was the turning point.  From that point, it became obvious that life was going to be intolerable working under this new contract.  Obviously, the reaction of the staff to the way the new contract was going made it the ideal time really to say, ‘right we don’t have to put up with this, we can go private’.  As soon as I said that to them, their attitude completely changed. They could not wait to get rid of all of this; so in a way this new contract has pushed me into it.  But it also put the staff behind me in doing it, whereas if I had suggested going private two and a half years ago, I don’t think we would have had the staff on board, or they would have taken a lot of convincing. 

 

 

And, what were your main concerns?

 

The practice, and the area which the practice is in, is not one which you would immediately think of as being the type of practice that would easily convert to a private practice.  It’s not a well-off area by any means, although there was always a private element, it was mainly NHS.  So to make that leap of faith if you like, required a big nudge.  

 

The main consideration was whether I would be able to convince, persuade, whatever, enough patients to stay with me to make the move financially viable.  I was assured by practiceplan staff that everything would go smoothly and there wasn’t a problem.

 

Why did you choose practiceplan?

 

practiceplan enabled us to retain our identity as a practice.  Rather than becoming a Denplan practice, it was still my practice with the support of Practice Plan - that’s what appealed to me.

 

They have a low key involvement in the running of the practice.  Obviously, I have got colleagues that I know very well that have done Denplan conversions, and I know there is a far more corporate image involved there.  One of the things that dentists are fiercely protective of is their independence.  And don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to having professional standards or maintaining those standards - it’s just that nobody likes having someone poking around in their practice and saying ‘right lets go round and tick these 300 boxes and make sure everything is okay’!

 

practiceplan were quite clear what they would do and they have done that.  Since going along with them, there are other services that they provide as well that have been useful, and which in the beginning they didn’t make a big fuss about.  

 

 

What was the secret of your successful conversion?

 

There was the initial advice, the financial assessment and fee setting.  They provided literature and leaflets.  There were several templates to choose from, so we could customise it so that it was presented as our plan.  The Area Manager was either at the end of the phone, or coming in at regular intervals to talk us through any problems for reassurance, or answer any questions and stuff like that.

 

I’m fully convinced that what we did was the right thing to do and the right time to do it.  If anyone is thinking of converting to private, then now is the time to do it.  Politically, there is so much media attention on the fact that NHS dentistry is in meltdown. In fact, the response I got from an awful lot of patients was, ‘right yes we were expecting this for years, we don’t know why you took so long’.  The patients are not surprised by this reaction from the dentists and, in general, are quite happy to go along with it. 

 

 

What is your practice like now?

 

Since the conversion I’m a lot happier, the staff are a lot happier and patients that we are seeing seem happy with the service they are getting.They are noticeably getting more time with me and I’ve introduced one or two extra things in to the check-up. Every patient now gets a dental risk assessment questionnaire, which they fill in. They seem very pleased about that; it is a more preventative attitude, which anyone appreciates.

 

I’m also quite happy to see that we are attracting quite a few new private patients.practiceplan members, patients that are on the plan here, are actually recommending the practice to other family members and friends who then join the practice.

 

I’d have no hesitation in recommending practiceplan and, in fact, I have mentioned them to a couple of colleagues.