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This morning's podcast from The Guardian newspaper - "Toothaches and waiting lists - where did the NHS dentists go?"
The latest front page headline in Dentistry Magazine - "More than 2,000 dentists quit NHS."
An interesting conversation with Nick Marston, Director of Private and Specialist at Mydentist (as I struggled to keep up with him ascending a Derbyshire hill on Sunday) - "MyDentist now generates around £200 million a year of private sales, representing almost half of our turnover."
Any independently owned provider of NHS dentistry has to be mindful of the media, of increasing wages, fuel bills and other costs and ask themselves how they are going to maintain their profitability this year and beyond?
There has never been a better time to go private, to implement a dental plan and to ask your (already loyal) patients to follow you into a braver new world.
The minority will always resist change - a minority of patients, team members and self-employed clinicians.
The majority "get it" and realise that an underfunded, politicised and bureaucratic system is no place for an independent business owner.
The bigger your NHS contract, the tougher the decision - I understand that - but if the biggest provider in the UK has hedged their bets by building private sales - isn't that a clue for you?
p.s. Nick also gave Ashley Latter a lot of credit for helping in that process.
Ashley can help your clinicians to learn how to communicate ethically and sell. He has owned that landscape for 25 years now.
Laura can show your TCOs how to succeed.
Marcos can show you how to utilise digital workflow to increase conversion and treatment lan value.
Practice Plan can show you how to design, implement and launch your plan.
I don't have commercial affiliations with any of my colleagues mentioned - I just know they get results.
I can be your Ringmaster, bringing this all together in the same way as a Non-Executive Director, helping you strategically plan for your future, develop your managers, make sure the numbers add up, show your team how to generate sales through internal marketing and ultimately guide you through your exit plan.
There's loads of help out there - you just have to decide to get some.
Hurry up - it's sinking.