Dental practice donating all PPE to NHS is supported via CBILS
A Greater London dental practice has donated all of its Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to NHS colleagues and stands ready to join the frontline fight against coronavirus, thanks to support from Lloyds Bank.
Love Teeth in North Cheam closed its doors to patients on March 16, a week before the chief dental officer of England ordered all dentists to put down their drills.
Owner and principal dentist Dr Kunal Patel said: “As dentists, we’re acutely aware of the risks of contracting viruses during our work.
“We realised that by keeping our doors open we weren’t helping the fight against Covid-19.
“Keeping our team, patients and the community safe was the priority and we had to think of the greater good.”
The practice moved to donate all its stocks of PPE to NHS colleagues, including 3,000 pairs of gloves and 750 face masks.
Dr Patel promised his valued staff that they would not lose out financially during the crisis and that they would continue to receive full pay.
But the practice does not qualify for the government’s furlough scheme, which pays 80% of staff wages.
It will continue to be paid its NHS income, but this currently makes up less than a fifth of the practice’s revenues, leaving Dr Patel facing a substantial funding gap.
Now Lloyds Bank has provided a £250,000 loan to the practice through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
Dr Patel said: “It was a very nervous time, but with Lloyds support, I know we will survive.
“My team are like my family. It would have been disastrous if we had to lose any of them.
“Now the whole team stands ready to be deployed when called upon for the wider NHS.
“Our roles are likely to be secondary to doctors, but we do have useful clinical knowledge and we want to help our NHS colleagues.
“But we want to reassure our patients that we will be back to complete their treatments and serve our community again.”
Love Teeth was founded in 2014 and has 21 staff, including 6 associate dentists, two hygienists and six dental nurses.
The state-of-the-art, award-winning digital clinic, which also trains other dentists, has 13,600 NHS and private patients and offers a complete range of services, from cosmetic to emergency dentistry.
Julie Haggerty, business banking manager at Lloyds Bank, said: “We know that there are many successful businesses with bright futures that need extra support during the coronavirus outbreak.
“We’re working with customers right across the region to guide them through these tough times and help the access the support that’s available, including through CBLIS.”
