Round table


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it a control thing though? A dentist I worked with called me his prac- tice manager, but it was just a title. You can appreciate that it is his business…” Hew Mathewson agreed, but said


he believed that dentists have to delegate to somebody and this is where leadership skills are called into question. He said: “A dentist is supposed to be a leader of a team. That is misleading, they should be saying at dental school that you are training to be a leader of the clinical team, not the whole team and that is part of the problem.” Andy Toy agreed, saying that he


says to young dentists: “The only reason I need to employ a dentist (over a DCP) is to be a leader and if you haven’t got leadership skills I don’t need you. I need a leader of a clinical team – that is the only reason I need a dentist right now.” Ian Matheson, managing director


of Wright Health Group, then said: “A friend of mine has just retired after being in practice for more than 30 years. He said you are not a truly qualified dentist until you have been mentored in good disciplines and methodologies in a practice for five years. This emphasises the key role of the mentor within the practice and the broad experience factor in order to become a proficient practitioner.” Andy Hadden, dento-legal adviser


and board member of FGDP(UK), returned to the earlier point of dentists not having enough finan- cial knowledge by saying: “We also see some entrepreneurs coming


“I believe that audit is probably the most powerful management tool there is”


Andy Toy


through who want to run dentistry very much as a business and the main aim, not surprisingly, is to make money.” John Barry expanded on the point:


“Can I draw a distinction Andy? A business is something that is sustainable. What you are describing, and I understand it exactly, is exploiting the cash cow until you kill it. And that’s not business. A dental business has to run on ethical lines and make a profit to be sustainable.” To which Andy Hadden said: “But


the type of treatment that some people do is almost unethical. You may well joke about what in the past would be called the amalgam free practice, well we are going to be heading for the enamel free practice soon, with some of these people.” Andy Toy then turned the attention


back towards the practice managers, asking Jill Taylor and Nicola Docherty what the level of support is for them in the average practice. Both agreed that it is changing for the better with Nicola Docherty saying: “It is about education, it is about educating the practice owners to trust their prac- tice managers and to allow them to gain a qualification.”


And Jill Taylor then said: “Going


back to what we were talking about earlier, with the current economic crisis, I think for practices that can’t afford a practice manager, SUSAN is the next best alternative. “A lot of practices are having to


make cut backs and this is a way for them to have everything in place but without a full time or a part time member of staff.” John Barry then explained that


the more people using SUSAN, the ‘smarter’ the software becomes, creating a “resource that is going to be unbelievable”. “When people see all of the


things that SUSAN can offer – all the training resources, all the CPD resources, all the information, all the tools, there is something in there for everyone that makes it worthwhile. There is enough in SUSAN to excite everybody.” Andy Hadden then asked: “How


would you sell this to the practices that already have all the systems in place?” “They don’t,” replied John Barry.


“Some of them have a lot, but SUSAN fills in all the gaps.” Andy Toy said: “If they recognise


the importance of systems then this makes it all the more accessible, powerful and with the added extra of regular updates.” Ian Matheson then brought up the question of internal quality audit, asking Andy and John how SUSAN can help “close the loop”? Andy replied by saying: “I am


one of the most experienced dentists involved with audit in the UK. Over the last ı5 years or so, I’ve advised more than ı,500 dentists with their audits. “I personally believe that audit


is probably the most powerful management tool there is. We can make it easy for people to carry out audit using SUSAN, because we can provide them with the resources that they need, not just the proce- dures but then the ability to audit those procedures. We are already building that in.” And John said: “The great thing


is that we can close the loop. There is nothing that we can’t do with this product in terms of its versatility. And as we grow it will become even easier to make it even better.” “That’s the message,” said Andy.


“That is absolutely the message – we build a community.”


Scottish Dental magazine 31


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