Can I polish your teeth or operate on your furry friend?
Can I polish your teeth or operate on your furry friend?
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Discussion

uber

Original Poster:

860 posts

201 months

Thursday 31st December 2015
quotequote all
I know this kind of thing has been brought up before but I'm looking for some new sidelines for 2016 and looking outside the box for some ideas.

What's to stop someone setting up a small chain of say dentists or vet practises fully kitted out with all the equipment required then going on a 50/50 split with the talent i.e dentist or vet?

Is it something that would be attractive to a dentist? A well marketed, no hassle business where they can focus on the medical side and let someone else deal with acquiring customers and dealing with the business side?


rex

2,067 posts

297 months

Thursday 31st December 2015
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Getting into dentistry is a whole world of regulation and there a number of corporates out there with chains of practices. Depends on investment level as to how you would proceed.

madmover

1,785 posts

215 months

Thursday 31st December 2015
quotequote all
uber said:
I know this kind of thing has been brought up before but I'm looking for some new sidelines for 2016 and looking outside the box for some ideas.

What's to stop someone setting up a small chain of say dentists or vet practises fully kitted out with all the equipment required then going on a 50/50 split with the talent i.e dentist or vet?

Is it something that would be attractive to a dentist? A well marketed, no hassle business where they can focus on the medical side and let someone else deal with acquiring customers and dealing with the business side?
Ask yourself, would it be appealing to you?
Why would a dentist opt to partner with you opposed to buying into an established franchise?
What's going to be your USP?
How much more are they likely to earn opposed to working within the NHS or for an established private practice?

Not impossible to make it work, just alot needs to be considered and I think it needs a very specific and well crafted proposal.

MrJuice

3,770 posts

187 months

Friday 1st January 2016
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bit like the specsavers model. Sounds good to me, especially for relatively new dentists who would find it daunting doing it all alone. Put the model in place and possible sources of funding and I believe it would work

Rollin

6,338 posts

276 months

Friday 1st January 2016
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I wrote a long answer since there are tons of obstacles, but shortened it to the major one.

It's illegal for you to own a dental practice unless you are qualified to be a GDC registrant. You can get around this if incorporated and 50% of directors are GDC registrants.

If this doesn't affect your plans then I'll move on to other issues. Would you want to provide NHS or private?

uber

Original Poster:

860 posts

201 months

Friday 1st January 2016
quotequote all
Rollin said:
I wrote a long answer since there are tons of obstacles, but shortened it to the major one.

It's illegal for you to own a dental practice unless you are qualified to be a GDC registrant. You can get around this if incorporated and 50% of directors are GDC registrants.

If this doesn't affect your plans then I'll move on to other issues. Would you want to provide NHS or private?
OK so that would be easy enough to take care of by appointing a director to oversee opps. I would imagine private and NHS patients could all benefit from the service

Rollin

6,338 posts

276 months

Friday 1st January 2016
quotequote all
OK. Bear in mind that the GDC registered director may carry much more risk than you in this venture. If you fall foul of any regulations, they risk being deregistered and unable to practice again. They will be the clinical supervisor.

Your next problem is that you won't get an NHS contract unless you buy an existing practice. As you can imagine, because new contracts are not being issued, they have become quite valuable. A bog standard, 2 surgery, leasehold practice with a decent NHS contract will cost you about £500000. You won't be able to take the NHS contract to another location either.

So unless you've got a few million to buy a chain of existing practices, that leaves you with a new all private practice.

Who is going to work for you? New dentists don't want to work in a start up private practice seeing 2 patients a day and earning no money. They'll have a £50000 student loan to pay off.

You'll need experienced practitioners who will probably have all the attributes needed to successfully manage and market without your input. If not, they'll be able to employ someone who can, without giving you 50% of the profits.

The next problem is regulations.....


uber

Original Poster:

860 posts

201 months

Friday 1st January 2016
quotequote all
Rollin said:
OK. Bear in mind that the GDC registered director may carry much more risk than you in this venture. If you fall foul of any regulations, they risk being deregistered and unable to practice again. They will be the clinical supervisor.

Your next problem is that you won't get an NHS contract unless you buy an existing practice. As you can imagine, because new contracts are not being issued, they have become quite valuable. A bog standard, 2 surgery, leasehold practice with a decent NHS contract will cost you about £500000. You won't be able to take the NHS contract to another location either.

So unless you've got a few million to buy a chain of existing practices, that leaves you with a new all private practice.

Who is going to work for you? New dentists don't want to work in a start up private practice seeing 2 patients a day and earning no money. They'll have a £50000 student loan to pay off.

You'll need experienced practitioners who will probably have all the attributes needed to successfully manage and market without your input. If not, they'll be able to employ someone who can, without giving you 50% of the profits.

The next problem is regulations.....
Have had a little look and it looks like a lot of these practises are selling for 24 months NHS revenue or less. I'm also pretty sure that private practises with some added value could be developed far faster than 2 customers a day.

I assume regulations are like any other regulated business, safeguards for the public and protocol to follow.

Time to look at positives smile

gd49

302 posts

202 months

Friday 1st January 2016
quotequote all
uber said:
I know this kind of thing has been brought up before but I'm looking for some new sidelines for 2016 and looking outside the box for some ideas.

What's to stop someone setting up a small chain of say dentists or vet practises fully kitted out with all the equipment required then going on a 50/50 split with the talent i.e dentist or vet?

Is it something that would be attractive to a dentist? A well marketed, no hassle business where they can focus on the medical side and let someone else deal with acquiring customers and dealing with the business side?
For vets you're a bit late, Vet4Pets and Companion Care stated this model a few years ago. Guy who started Vets4Pets was the same guy who did Specsavers first. They've pushed pretty hard with their marketing so I think you'd struggle to get noticed.

Interesting to see dental practices still have to be owned by dentists, veterinary governing body got rid of this requirement in the 90s which allowed the joint venture model to start.

Rollin

6,338 posts

276 months

Friday 1st January 2016
quotequote all
Not necessarily by a dentist, any GDC registrant can own one. It's a good career path for dental nurses with a bit of drive.

He's a bit late in dentistry too, there are lots of corporate dental bodies. IDH probably being the biggest.

It does tend to mess up the NHS pension arrangements for their dentists though.

NorthDave

2,541 posts

263 months

Sunday 3rd January 2016
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I thought lots of dentists operate like hairdressers? They just rent a chair (room) in a fancy place and hand over a chunk of profit for no hassle of running the place.

Given the shortage of dentists I would of thought this would be a good model. Obviously you would want to look at figures etc.

pomp1

244 posts

231 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
Interesting. Looking to sell my practice

65k Uda. Looking for £4m; no shortage of buyers out there!

uber

Original Poster:

860 posts

201 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
pomp1 said:
Interesting. Looking to sell my practice

65k Uda. Looking for £4m; no shortage of buyers out there!
I take it you have some decent fixtures and fittings for that kind of premium smile