private dentists

Brooklyn6

Can private dentists use the Government furlough scheme?

silvercar

Doesn't the British Dental Association provide advice?
I would have thought that if you are working you can't have furlough. Presumably private dentist are providing some sort of service to patients, even if it is only advice and prescriptions. That is my guess, I'm sure the BDA are giving guidance.

Brooklyn6

No not really. And we are not working.

GHolmesAdmin

This is the notice on my (private) dentists web site - not sure what I'm paying my insurance for at the moment.

'Coronavirus update: Wednesday 1st April 2020

Please be advised due to the Covid-19 response we are closing our doors temporarily for the safety of our patients, our teams and our community.

All appointments have been postponed until further guidance; please do not attend the practice without prior telephone contact or text confirmation.

As such, emergencies will be directed to our telephone triage service.

Please call us on  

Alternatively if your query is non-urgent, you are welcome to contact us by email
 

May we wish for you all to be safe and healthy and we shall see you upon our return.

Best wishes

Market Street Dental Care'

Missus_Hyde

silvercar said:

 Presumably private dentist are providing some sort of service to patients, even if it is only advice and prescriptions. That is my guess, I'm sure the BDA are giving guidance.

Our private dentist isn't providing any services at all; if it's an emergency (ie raging toothache)  then they have got a number to ring, but other than that zilch. I'm not blaming them; I merely mention it.

I've got an appointment in July, so maybe they'll be open by then.

epm-84

Brooklyn6 said:

No not really. And we are not working.

If you're not working at all and don't provide any NHS services at all then I wouldn't see why you shouldn't get furlough.  If you are doing any work (including taking one 5 minute phone call to pass details of one of your patients to someone else) or provide NHS treatment to some patients then I don't think you qualify.  Martin has tried to get clarification for dental nurses who do a mix of private and NHS work but hasn't got a concrete favourable answer.

epm-84

GHolmesAdmin said:

This is the notice on my (private) dentists web site - not sure what I'm paying my insurance for at the moment.

I'd say if you need dental treatment and can't get it or have to get it from an alternative provider or if routine appointments aren't provided at the frequency they are supposed to be, then you should be asking for a partial refund on your policy.  If you aren't due a routine appointment and haven't needed any treatment then you're probably still getting as much use as you would have done if they'd been opened.

GHolmesAdmin

Well, I have an appointment for a check-up in August and only if that doesn't happen will anything have changed.

superbigal

There are 1000s of people in the Dental industry currently Furloughed. I find it hard to believe the OP is anything but fishing for some reason.
Martin does not need to get an answer for mixed practices. The rules are clear.  They can Furlough for the percentage of staff that balances their private income. The practices have tools that allow them to work out how much furloughing they can do.
If anyone really wants to read up on it.
https://bda.org/advice/Coronavirus/Pages/financial-impact.aspx#closure

brook2jack2

Just to clarify you cannot furlough staff if they do any work for the practice at all, ie triaging etc and you can only furlough staff in proportion to NHS income. 

Obviously dentists cannot be furloughed . 

No dentist in England and Scotland can provide any treatment unless they are part of a UDC (urgent dental centre) but all dentists are triaging for their practices on top of any redeployment or other jobs they have. 

In Wales and NI dentists are expected to do non aerosol urgent treatments in practice and refer to UDC s urgent but very very limited aerosol procedures. 

tarka11

We use Denplan and our private dental practice has been in lockdown since end of March. Our routine checks and hygiene appointments have been cancelled. But Denpan keeps taking monthly sums from our account. When I asked about a waiver for at least some of these debits (since no service) I was told that Denplan had asked its dentists to waive June and July  fees but some dentists were not doing this - ours is one of those. I was told to contact my dentist. Does this sound right? Isn't our contract with Denplan - what is their legal position? Are we contracting the dentist or Denplan? I am searching for the contract!