Moving a dental practice from NHS to private
Converting from NHS to private is now one of the most common transitions in UK dentistry, driven by contract pressures and NHS access constraints. The commercial risk is not the pricing, it is the communication. Practices that explain the change plainly and early retain considerably more of their list than those that do not.
- How to tell patients, and when
- Membership plans, and how to pitch them by area
- What the website has to do during the transition
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The context
Why practices are converting
NHS dental contract arrangements have been under sustained strain, with the UDA system widely criticised for making certain treatments uneconomic to deliver. Contract reform remains a live topic and a well-searched one.
The practical result is that a large number of practices have moved wholly or partly private over the past few years, and more are considering it. It is no longer an unusual step.
Communication
Telling patients
The single biggest determinant of how much of your list you keep is how you tell them.
Early. Patients who hear it from a letter three weeks before the change feel ambushed. Three to six months is more comfortable.
Plainly. Say what is changing, when, what it will cost and what their options are. Avoid the language of “evolving our service model”. Patients respect being told straight.
In writing, on the website. A clear page patients can read in their own time takes enormous pressure off reception, who would otherwise have the same difficult conversation several hundred times.
With an option to leave. Tell people how to obtain their records and find an alternative. It seems counterproductive but it substantially reduces the anger, and angry former patients leave reviews.
The product
Membership plans
For most converting practices, the membership plan is what makes the transition survivable. It converts an uncomfortable price increase into a predictable monthly cost, which patients accept far more readily.
Structure it as three tiers so patients have a choice rather than an ultimatum. Typically: examinations and hygiene, a middle tier adding more hygiene visits and treatment discounts, and a family option.
Pitch to your area. This matters more than practices expect. In Bromley, Kingston or Loughton a plan at £25 to £35 a month is unremarkable. In Basildon, Harlow or Grays the same plan needs to be £15 to £20 to convert. We have counted the markets and the difference is real.
Three jobs
What the website has to do
Explain the change. A dedicated page, findable from the homepage, written plainly.
Sell the plan. A comparison table, not prose. Three tiers, what each includes, the monthly figure, and what happens for treatment outside the plan.
Attract replacements. You will lose a proportion of the list. Treatment pages for the private work you now want, local pages for your catchment, and a Google Business Profile updated to reflect a private practice. Most converting practices forget that last step entirely and keep advertising themselves as an NHS practice for years.
Honestly
What to expect
You will lose patients. Any adviser who says otherwise is selling something. The planning question is how many and which ones.
The patients who leave are disproportionately those who attended irregularly and generated little revenue. That is not a comfortable thing to say but it is generally what the numbers show.
The transition period is roughly six to twelve months before the new pattern settles. Practices that plan for that, communicate early and invest in replacing the lost list come out ahead. Practices that announce it abruptly and hope generally do not.
Want us to check your own site?
Send us the address and we will run it against everything in this guide, free, within one working day.
FAQs
Common questions
How do we tell patients we are moving to private?
Early, plainly and in writing, with a clear page on the website they can read in their own time. Give three to six months’ notice, state what it will cost, and explain how to obtain records if they would rather move. Clarity retains more patients than careful wording does.
How much of our patient list will we lose?
It varies by area and by how the change is communicated, and any specific figure would be guesswork. What is consistent is that the patients who leave are disproportionately irregular attenders who generated little revenue, and that clear early communication reduces losses substantially.
What should a dental membership plan cost?
Pitch it to your area. In affluent catchments such as Bromley, Kingston or Loughton, £25 to £35 a month is unremarkable. In more price-aware areas such as Basildon, Harlow or Grays, the same plan needs to be £15 to £20 to convert.
Should we remove NHS references from the website immediately?
No. Abruptly deleting NHS information while patients are still on the list generates complaints. Phase it and be explicit about the timeline.
Do we need a new website to go private?
Not always, but you do need new pages: the explanation, the plan comparison and the private treatment pages. If your existing site cannot easily accommodate those, a rebuild is usually cheaper than fighting it.
What about NHS contract reform?
It is a live and well-searched topic. Practices that write clearly about what reform means for their patients tend to earn both trust and search visibility while their competitors say nothing.
Enquire now
Tell us about your practice
We come back within one working day with a price and a launch date. No sales sequence.
- A fixed price, not a range that moves later
- A free compliance check of your current site against GDC rules
- An honest view on whether you need a rebuild or just fixes
Prefer to send your content straight over?