MEDICAL OPINION COMPLIMENT SLIP

MEDICAL OPINION COMPLIMENT SLIP LETTER FROM HEATH HOUSE HOSPITAL dated June 1999

        The area near my practice had been under 4 foot of water overnight but nobody rang me to tell me and I discovered the mess at 8.00a.m. the next day. The council sandbags stopped at the house before the Practice.

         Inside the mess was waist high, the smell was disgusting as sewerage had overflowed. I rang the Health Authority to see if I could move to the empty Dental Surgery in Briton Ferry health centre but was told no because my patients would bring chaos to the surgery, but they would allow me to move my 2 surgeries to the 1st floor of my original building that would soon be a building site in a 10 ft by 12 ft room in the middle of my in-house Denture and Crown Laboratory and with NO equipment or waiting area!!.

     I rang my Insurance company immediately and rang my Bank Manager and he didn’t seem too worried but told me to keep in regular contact.

All my financial needs would be met but even with caution my overdraft increased.

I decided to do “home visits” to the local residential homes and explained the situation to the Health Authority as my Practicing Profile would change

After one month an investigation was started against me as my Practicing Profile had changed.

     The investigation required a selection of completed patients to be seen, in a clinic in town, to ascertain that I had done the work to a certain standard. As ALL the patients were unable to attend these appointments because they were “in a home” the Authority sent out 3 more investigations for each non-attendance but THESE in turn “failed to attend” or rather the Managers of the Homes said that they would be UNABLE to attend, so the number of Patients under investigation grew exponentially until ALL the home visits and more were summonsed. I rang the Dental Practice Board and Health Authority angrily explaining that I had had a flood and had “permission” to change my profile. To ease the situation I stopped doing “Home Visits” so in effect they stopped me working and added to my problems. I ended up with 100+ pts on investigation as they also asked to see patients I had seen pre-flood.

I rang 2-3 times a week to unsuccessfully get interim payments on my approved Insurance Claim and saw my regular patients going elsewhere.

My practice life between January to June 1998