Nigel Jones discusses The NHS to Private Dentistry Show and explains what attendees will pick up on the day.
What is The NHS to Private Dentistry Show?
The NHS to Private Dentistry Show is an opportunity to help those dentists that are looking at their future careers and thinking maybe that lies outside of the NHS, and in the private sector.
It’s about sharing with them ideas, thoughts, considerations, advice, tips, guidance. All of the things so that they can make an informed decision about what the best route is for them.
What do you hope the day will cover and what do you think delegates who attend will come away with?
There’s going to be a number of things that we are going to cover during the course of the day. Hopefully touching on all of the sorts of concerns and considerations of those people thinking about leaving the NHS.
That includes things like, why should they contemplate leaving the NHS, what does the future of the NHS hold?
I’ve got a great conversation that I will have with Simon Thackeray and Eddie Crouch around what the future of NHS dentistry really is. It will go on from that to look at how you can create a vision for your practice. What sort of practice do you want and how do you shape that? How to assess the challenges that might be involved in going on that journey. Then, how do you plan for that?
You get the chance to hear from dentists who have already made that step and what they have learnt along the way.
This is mostly about not being as frightened of taking the step, and being more confident in how much value patients attach to you.
It even goes down into detail like, implications for your NHS pension. What will they be and what do you have to do to plan for private pension provision?
Pretty much anything that you can think of that might be associated with taking that step away from the NHS to go private, will be covered during the day.
Is there an opportunity for delegates to interact with the speakers?
Yes. There’s definitely going to be an opportunity for delegates to interact with the speakers and pose questions.
There will also be the opportunity to speak to experts that we’ve got within the Practice Plan and Wesleyan ranks.
People who have got experience in helping dentists make that step, or explore different private pension arrangements etc.
So yes, there’s lots of possibilities for interaction.
Moving from NHS to private is a very hot topic at the moment. Why now, and why is now a good time to make that move?
The supply of dentistry and the demand for dentistry are working in favour of the profession at the moment.
The supply of dentistry has been going down for a number or years. That’s in part because there’s more part-time dentists. It’s also because of the fact that there’s been high numbers of retiring dentists. We saw the number of people on the GDC register go down this year.
It’s also because we’ve got fewer European dentists coming here and staying here, because they have been leaving in high numbers as well.
You’ve got those sorts of factors that have been around for quite a few years.
Then, they are compounded by the fact that the safety measures introduced by the COVID pandemic have meant that things like fallow time are reducing patient throughput. You’ve got so many practices reporting waiting lists. Probably every practice has got some degree of waiting list and it’s not necessarily the three-year extreme that Healthwatch reported, but it can be a number of months – six months, nine months, that sort of thing.
I think that shows the demand for dentistry is really high. But also the ‘Zoom boom’ has come about through this virtual world we inhabit.
The demand for straighter whiter teeth has gone through the roof.
We see that through our finance business, Medenta. We are breaking all records with that at the moment, in terms of the number of loans that people are taking out for, particularly, orthodontics.
You’ve got this demand that’s going through the roof, supply that’s constrained. That puts dentists in a position of strength to shape the kind of practice that they want for the longer term.
Too often the fear that their patients won’t go with them on that journey holds dentists back. Whereas they now know that they are in a position that actually, if they want to remain 100% NHS, that’s perfectly doable. If they want to go 100% private it has never been more straightforward to do.
The fear that patients will leave you is gone. People are realising, where will they go? They will just join another waiting list somewhere.
Actually, it’s a great time to be exploring your options. It’s also a great time to think about creating the practice that you have dreamt of for years.
Why should dentists sign up to The NHS to Private Dentistry Show?
Delegates should sign up to The NHS to Private Show because it will give them the confidence to put together a plan that enables them to develop the practice of their dreams.
To register for The NHS to Private Dentistry Show, simply visit dentistry.co.uk/shows/nhs-to-private-dentistry.
