Neil Lloyd explains how a new dental group is attempting to change the face of corporate dentistry
One of the newest and fastest-growing dental corporates in the UK, Dental Partners is all about doing things differently in relation to both patients and dental professionals.
With the backing of August Equity, Dental Partners was established in May 2017 following the acquisition of the 10 practices formerly known as the Genesis Group.
Since then, it has grown by a further 19 practices, retaining its headquarters in Birmingham.
What we stand for
Dentistry is our team’s priority and it always will be. We are committed to delivering high-quality, safe and ethical dental care by creating pleasant, diverse and respectful practices with a social conscience.
In order to achieve this, we understand that we need to empower and engage with our professionals.
Good dentistry needs the right environment to thrive so we aim to make our practices the very best place to work for our clinical and non-clinical teams.
We also provide absolute clinical freedom for clinicians when they join our group. This helps to maintain the team and culture from the original practice, encouraging them to continue treating their patients with the same professional care that made them so successful previously.
We trust the judgement of our clinicians – their surgeries are their domains. We simply provide the supportive framework and state-of-the-art technologies they need to continue practising ethically and safely.
We also shoulder a lot of the day-to-day responsibilities that the principal previously had to deal with, such as administrative and regulatory burdens – enabling them to really focus on their patients.
At Dental Partners, we believe that it is this combination of patient-centric services and clinical freedom that enables us to deliver the best patient care.
Professional opportunities
The dental team is the heartbeat of any practice and staff preservation is the cornerstone of everything Dental Partners stands for. We aim to recruit the brightest dental talents and nurture them in a progressive clinical environment.
Consequently, we place a strong emphasis on the personal development of all our professionals, with both internal and external learning opportunities available. We help individuals to meet their Enhanced CPD requirements, advance their careers and push the boundaries of what dentistry has to offer, in order to create the best place to work.
Community engagement
As we’ve grown, we have had more opportunities to support various charities in the dental sector. We are keen supporters of Bridge 2 Aid – in fact, its founder Ian Wilson is a regional clinical director and a senior associate in a Dental Partners practice. Through this work, we have helped to provide training for local healthcare providers in Tanzania, enabling them to deliver emergency dentistry to their local communities.
Many of our colleagues in the group also hold charity fundraisers and community events each month, purely through their own initiative. We are more than happy to help them wherever we can, such as supporting one of our dental nurses when she volunteered with Dentaid.
Another example of our engagement with the wider dental community is our membership with the Association of Dental Groups (ADG). Dental Partners joined the ADG in order to have a greater voice as the profession goes through a period of intense change – for example, with the new potential contract and Brexit.
The ADG meetings have been a great source of information and advice on a wide range of topics affecting the dental profession and corporate dentistry in particular.
New kid on the block
We might be the new kid on the block, but we are still determined to do things our own way. Everyone in the dental profession has the opportunity to learn from others and we are doing just that to make sure we develop the group we are aiming for.
Far from the faceless corporate giant of yesteryear, we are looking to create a new image for ourselves that benefits both patients and professionals. Perhaps along the way, we can start to change perceptions of this area of the dental sector as well.
* The views presented in this article are those of the author and not necessarily that of the ADG as a whole.
For more information about the ADG, visit www.dentalgroups.co.uk
