Norfolk Practice Closes Suddenly With Debts of £1M
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- Published: Wednesday, 07 September 2022 08:15
- Written by Peter Ingle
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A long established dental practice in Norfolk has closed its doors at short notice.In an area where NHS access was already poor the news of the closure reported in the Eastern Daily Press, has caused considerable concern.
The practice closure leaves debts totalling £992,800. The Manor House dental surgery in Long Stratton, treated its last patients on August 5th and has a debt of £444,245 to NHS England. This sum may relate to funded but undelivered UDA’s, which with the practice’s closure cannot be clawed back in the normal way.
The practice was run by Simply Smile Dental Group which owes £537,410 to Simply Smile UK Ltd. The company runs five other practices one in Northamptonshire, one in Cambridgeshire, and the rest in Norfolk. Each practice trades with a location based name although their websites follow a standardised appearance with the strapline “Our approach is thorough, modern and individual.”
While all of the group share Simply Smile branding on each page of their websites, each practice is registered as its own individual company. Companies House accounts for other group practices, show the same three directors as named on the Manor House documents. Simply Smile Manor House Limited has now appointed Opus LLP as its liquidator. A spokesperson for Opus said it was too early to comment on the debts.
The other practices in the group remain open.
Alison Thomas, county councillor for Long Stratton, said the amount owed to the NHS was concerning - and questioned how patients who paid ahead for treatment would be reimbursed.
Mrs Thomas who chairs the council’s health scrutiny committee said: "This is a great concern and something that we are due to look at in the coming months. We will be asking what there is in place to make sure patients, in particular, will not just end up on a long list of creditors.”
Along with neighbouring Suffolk, Norfolk has frequently been mentioned as a dental desert and has a flourishing “toothless in” group.
Healthwatch Norfolk has produced a series of reports on the dire situation that patients face in Norfolk. Amongst the quotes it uses is one where a would-be patient having been advised by 111 to telephone a practice, was still in the queue after a three hour wait.
In a statement to the paper NHS England – East of England, said, “We are committed to ensuring everyone can access high quality dental care across Norfolk, and are working closely with dental providers to improve access to services, including inviting NHS contract holders to take on additional activity.”
They concluded, “Urgent and emergency dental care is available for those who need it, and people should continue to use the NHS 111 service for advice on where to go.”
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