New partnership approach

When asked what, if any, non-clinical tasks the might like to delegate to a third party, responses included regulation compliance, finances, marketing and HR.

With the general trend pointing towards dentists wanting to spend the majority of their time focusing on clinical care, it was interesting to note that, on average, respondents spend almost  a quarter (23 per cent) of their time meeting administrative needs. What’s more, 70 per cent reported spending time outside of scheduled practice hours on admin.

Speaking about the results, Simon Gallier, Managing Partner of Future Health Partnership, commented: “These results show us that a fair number of dentists are unhappy with their clinical-to-admin work ratio but also that two thirds of them don’t think corporate dentistry is for them. The question then is this – how can these dentists improve their lot and achieve a happy working life balanced with rest and relaxation time?

“Future Health Partnership offers an interesting and viable alternative to the status quo. In a nutshell, FHP holds practices as community interest companies (CIC), based on the NHS spinout concept, for example Community Dental Services.  A CIC is set up to deliver care or a business for the community. Employees pay £1 for one share in the practice, which gives them a say in the AGM. No-one has to buy a share if they don’t want to, and no-one can have more than one share. It has to be held for the benefit of the staff and the community forever.  It can only ever be sold to another CIC with the same remit. If the company goes belly up, the partners will be responsible for £1 of it.