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We begin every week now with some questions unanswered and new questions emerging.
Here's a rapid summary of what's being asked this morning:
When will the return to work happen for dentists?
What level of treatment will I be able to deliver to my patients?
What will my PPE requirements be?
Where will I source my PPE and at what price?
What additional items will be necessary to reassure my team and my patients that they are safe?
Do I need to look at air filtration systems - and, if so, which ones?
Will I need perspex screens at reception?
What will the new patient journey and patient flow look like?
How many hours a week will I need to stay open?
Do I separate non-AGP and AGP procedures by surgery and/or by times of day - and how do I split the team across these procedures?
How do I persuade my salaried team and my self-employed clinicians that a change of hours and working practices will be necessary?
What level of remuneration can my self-employed clinicians expect?
How do I charge the patients and the self-employed clinicians for the cost of PPE?
How do I make all of this profitable and keep the business and my family solvent for the rest of 2020?
I may well have missed a few points - but I think that list is more than enough to keep us going.
Here's what I'm doing about it in the 4 days ahead before the Bank Holiday.
Free to dentistry:
I'll keep writing this blog every working day and try to comment on questions and answers.
We continue to offer all vCPD from The Extreme Business Academy completely free of charge.
Our Daily Briefings at 13:00 on Facebook Live will be very interesting this week, with the following guests:
Monday - Sarah Buxton on employment law (see Q11 above);
Tuesday - Alan Suggett on finance (see Qs 12/13/14);
Wednesday - Sam Waley-Cohen - CEO Portman Dental on their plans to be ready for work a week today and the emerging landscape for dental corporates post-lockdown and what that means to you;
Thursday - Simon Thackeray with the practitioner's view and John Milne, Senior National Dental Advisor to the CQC.
Our Thursday night Business Confidence Forum panelists will, I hope, continue to educate, entertain and reassure you that we will find our way back to practice.
This week's Two Reds podcast will feature an interview with Dr. Chris Barrowman, founder of the InfinityBlu mico-corporate in Perthshire and will include the story of how Chris completed his 5th practice purchase during lockdown and his optimism for the future of the independent private sector.
Also this week I'll be presenting two "Return to Work" webinars:
Co-presenting with Laura Horton for Gensmile on Tuesday evening at 18:30;
Presenting for CODE members on Thursday at 14:45.
Fee-based to my clients:
This morning we have now risen to a total of 94 practices who have joined The Extreme Business Regeneration Programme.
They are all investing £300 pcm (inclusive of VAT) per practice in building a confident future.
Included in their membership of the programme, today sees the official launch of The Extreme Business Buying Group.
We have developed a strategic alliance with our trusted friends at Quintess Denta and my clients will be sending their first two-month order for PPE by close of play tomorrow night.
In tonight's client Zoom call, we welcome Paul Howlett, partner at Queensway Dental in the North East, who will be sharing his experiences of running a busy UDC.
In Wednesday's client Zoom call, we welcome James Hamill of Quintess Denta and Ken O'Brien of Quoris 3D to discuss week #1 of The Buying Group, so that we can establish the smoothest possible distribution system.
Also on Wednesday we will be releasing this week's package of vCPD training for furloughed, redeployed and working teams:
The Personal Progress Interview - how to conduct appraisals that your team enjoy;
The Team Approach to Dentistry;
How to deal with difficult conversations.
During the week, we will continue to share with our Regeneration clients (and their teams) daily updates and briefings via our Facebook Workplace - now with over 650 team members connected.
I'll be continuing to answer each and every one of the weekly progress reports that we ask for from the owners and managers, holding them accountable for progress, as well as on-demand emails and Zoom calls during the week and guest appearances on their own team calls.
Also I’d like to say again that what you, Rachel and Phillippa are achieving and have produced with the regeneration programme is mind blowing, the time frame you’ve done it in, the format, the content, the wider inspiration for what we can do to survive as businesses...it’s all been priceless and I thank you for helping me at this time from the bottom of my heart
Dr. Gemma Cockburn
I’m making the Buying Group exclusively available to my clients in The Extreme Business Regeneration Programme - which, although originally intended to run for three months from April, I’m now planning to extend to the end of 2020 as my only “coaching” service.
I covered all the features and benefits of The Programme in my May Newsletter:
My vision is to get my clients back to work and to get “buying” confidently off my clients’ desks so that they can focus on other aspects of the return to work phase.
If you would be interested in joining us - please let me know. Email coachbarrow@me.com.
We began with many unanswered questions - and that's what I'm doing about it this week.