119 - NHS to Private: The Financial Implication, with Wesleyan Financial Services

So first question, we're seeing more practices considering or moving towards private dentistry.

From a financial perspective, what are the key implications dentists should be aware of?

So that it's a journey.

OK, so as you well know, Suki, when you're going from NHS to private, there's so many moving parts.

And I think what dentists are probably guilty of is they're putting...

they put themselves last.

So if they were to write down a list of things they're worried about in this journey, they're looking at their patients, they're looking at their staff, they're looking at how the practice looks, they're looking at their profitability, et cetera.

So there's lots of stuff for them to work on.

And what sits bottom of the list often is themselves.

So we try and help get involved as early as possible, at least just to point out that the journey involves financial implications for them.

So a starting point would be you're no longer involved with the NHS, so you lose most of the NHS benefits.

Benefits that you've built up up until this point, you'll still have, for example, the pension, but you're no longer accruing benefits in it.

So what you have to do is take a step back and think, right, okay, I don't have any excess benefits now, how do I replace them? So that's the financial implication.

So you're looking at things like sick pay, for example.

you don't have the NHS sick pay anymore, so what happens if you're off sick? What happens to your pension? You're no longer accruing benefits in the pension plan, in the NHS pension, although you still have what you've already paid into at that point, but you may well still have another 20 or 30 years of work ahead of you.

What do you do? What should you do? What's the best thing to do? When should you do it? My concern with situations like this is it can often just be put off.

We have many examples where I'll give it six months and let the practice settle in and that six months turns into a year, two years, three years.

Now, the implications of that are what we call the cost of delay.

And if you put off these decisions, the longer you put it off, the more expensive these things tend to be because you're playing catch up.

So if you've left it two years, three years, five years, you've then got to make up that difference really to give yourself the best possible retirement if you're thinking specifically of inventions.

Also, you're on the risk of if you're off sick, if you're off sick and you haven't replaced the benefits that the NHS provided, then again, it could lead to financial difficulties for yourself and your family.

So there's lots to consider.

And I think that the best thing for anybody who's on that journey is to sit down with a specialist who really understands dentistry.

and help at least position some of this stuff.

There's more.