Hexham Dental Clinic

Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We sincerely appreciate your loyalty as a long-term patient and understand your feelings of disappointment and confusion regarding the recent changes to our practice.

We want to offer our sympathies and explain the rationale behind our decision to transition away from NHS services. The challenges within the NHS dental system have made it increasingly difficult for us to maintain the high standard of care that we strive to provide. The Government’s own Health and Social Care Committee has referred to the NHS dental contract as “unfit for purpose,” a sentiment echoed by the independent think tank, the Nuffield Trust, in their review of NHS dental services. These reports highlight significant issues within the system that not only impact the quality of patient care but also affect the well-being of our dentists and team members.

Working under the constraints of the NHS framework often requires a pace that is not conducive to thorough and patient-focused care. It can also lead to significant strain on our team, which we believe is neither sustainable nor fair to our staff or patients. We made the difficult decision to introduce new private membership plans to ensure we can continue to provide the quality care you deserve.

We understand that the process of joining the new plans and the concept of capacity limits may not have been communicated as clearly as it should have been. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. Our intention was to inform all patients fairly and equally, ensuring that everyone had the same opportunity to join. Unfortunately, due to high demand, we have reached full capacity faster than anticipated, resulting in a waiting list for those wishing to join the new plans.

We genuinely value your long-term loyalty and hope to continue serving you in the future. We are actively exploring ways to expand our capacity and accommodate more patients. In the meantime, if you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please let us know, and we will ensure that you are contacted as soon as space becomes available.

Thank you for your understanding and for sharing your concerns. We are committed to providing the best possible care and will take your feedback into consideration as we continue to refine our communication and service offerings.

Kind regards,

Dear Mrs Morton.

Thank you for sharing your feedback and concerns with us. I sincerely apologise for the distress and disappointment you experienced during your recent visit. We understand how upsetting the situation must have been, especially given your long-term loyalty to our practice.
Firstly, I want to acknowledge the frustration and disappointment you feel about our decision to move away from providing NHS services. This decision was not made lightly. It was driven by the significant challenges within the NHS dental system, making it increasingly difficult for us to deliver the high-quality care our patients deserve. The Government’s own Health and Social Care Committee has referred to the NHS dental contract as “unfit for purpose,” a sentiment echoed by the independent think tank, the Nuffield Trust, in their review of NHS dental services. Despite our best efforts, the constraints imposed by the current NHS framework have become unsustainable for our clinic. As you may have seen in the news recently, many dental clinics in the UK have also found the NHS contract unworkable. BUPA was forced to completely close 85 of their NHS clinics last year.
We made every effort to include all existing patients on our mailing list and inform them about the transition to our new membership plans. We sent out communications to ensure that every NHS patient had a fair opportunity to join the new plan, with a clear indication that membership would be on a first-come, first-served basis. I understand that you did indeed receive your letters but had not yet returned them indicating your wish to join our plan. No patients were automatically enrolled to our plan, as to do so would have required their consent and bank details.

We did not anticipate the overwhelming demand and the speed at which patients signed up. Regrettably, our plans reached full capacity within two weeks, which, as we understand from our plan administrator, is unusually quick compared to similar setups.

We genuinely do not wish to lose loyal patients like yourself, and we want you to know that your long-term loyalty to our practice is highly valued. We are actively exploring ways to increase our capacity to meet the unprecedented demand. For this reason, we have a waiting list of patients wanting to join us for routine care on a plan. I have ensured that your name has been added to that waiting list, active from the time you first contacted us about the above matter. If you do not wish to be on the waiting list, I would be grateful if you could please let us know.

Although we cannot offer you routine care at the moment, we do not wish for any of our loyal patients to feel that they won’t be cared for if they have a dental emergency. So, for the time being, if you find yourself in need of emergency dental care, we would encourage you to reach out to us, and we will do our best to help.

Once again, I apologise for the distress caused and thank you for your understanding during this challenging transition.

Yours sincerely,

Dr J Sykes,
Owner/ Director, HDC.