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Q Trouble with Conversion

We have just converted to Denplan and are subsequently losing quite a lot of NHS patients. Can you offer any advice?

A Communication is vital in this instance; clear, positive and lots of it.
Look at this as an opportunity, decide who your target audience is, what will appeal to them and how they are best reached and then communicate with them!
Plan a communications strategy that may incorporate any or all of the following initiatives: mail shot, advertising, feature articles in local newspaper, patient recommendation incentives, open days, children’s day with colouring or poster competitions.

Prepare and send follow up letters to target old NHS patients who have not converted, advertise in the phone book, determine leaflets or letters and send  to local companies offering same day treatment for ‘emergencies’.

Consider what has changed at your practice from the patients’ perspective. If they visited you last week as a NHS patient but returned this week as a private one, how is their experience different and how does this equate to the difference in the fee they have to now pay? It is all about value so how are you delivering value in the private sector?