A desire to maintain high standards of patient care without having to sacrifice her or her team’s wellbeing was a primary motivator for why Helen Loudon, Corbridge Dental’s principal dentist, left the NHS for private practice.
The struggle to meet punishing NHS targets was taking its toll on both Helen and her team. As practice manager, Cerri Crowe recounts, team members of long standing were buckling under the pressure and even looking for jobs outside of dentistry. Something had to give, and so the decision to leave the NHS for private practice became a no brainer.
When she was seeking someone to help her and her team navigate their way through the process of leaving the NHS, Practice Plan was consistently at the top of the list of recommendations from dental colleagues.
And, although going through the process of leaving was not without some stress, Helen and her team feel they were extremely well supported by their regional support manager, Jayne Gibson.
More relaxed
As Helen says, Jayne was there to hold their hand as they went through the process of informing patients. The training she gave also helped the team to field any questions they received after sharing the news. She became like an extra member of the Corbridge team.
Since the change, the predominant feeling in the practice is one of calm. As a dental nurse, Christine Reed says, there is no longer a feeling they are just servicing a conveyor belt of patients. The atmosphere is more relaxed, something which she feels rubs off on the patients, too.
It’s this relaxed working environment which dentist Jack Gooding feels has contributed to a greater sense of wellbeing and unity within the team. As he says: ‘Everyone has less stress. There’s the same amount of work, but you have more time to do it.’
More than a year on from leaving, Helen feels as an NHS dentist, she was ‘a busy fool’. Now, in private practice, she’s still busy, but she’s no fool!
If you are interested in finding out more about how we help practices to become more profitable, call 01691 684165 or visit www.practiceplan.co.uk.
