As part of my ‘UK Tour’ this year I have tried to take the opportunity to visit fantastic clinical centers as I have been around the country lecturing or at conferences.
Recently I went to Birmingham to lecture to the ITI Study and took the opportunity to see the Westbourne Clinic where Jack Richardson and Anthony Summerwill have their private practices. This is an amazing concept, the like of which many dentists will never have seen before and is truly a polyclinic. There are dozens of consultants working out of this mini private hospital, which has a fully equipped sedation operating theatre which does breast augmentations and orthopedic surgery under propofol sedation. It has a 3-bed recovery ward, multiple consulting rooms and imaging together with a dental suite associated. The infra structure around the Westbourne Clinic would make most dentist toes curl up. There are staff everywhere, offices everywhere, and facilities everywhere. In essence, it makes the average dental practice look a little bit like a one-man band. I know in the early days it was a huge commitment to the people that set it up and it must be terrifying to watch the money drain out of the place for the first 2 or 3 years before it swings around and starts to become a viable business. There were lessons learned for me to take back to our business from the practice but I think the main lesson is that I am not trying to be the Westbourne Clinic and we are not trying to have a polyclinic. Contrary to my usual instinct, I should stay off and try not to have what everyone else has as soon as I see it.
Leave a comment