Considering a move from NHS dentistry to private practice? Patient Plan Direct has been supporting successful NHS-to-private conversions for over 17 years. Our experienced conversion team will guide you through every stage of the process, helping you create a practice-branded dental membership plan that can replace NHS income and provide a sustainable future for your practice.
Whether you’re looking to fully surrender your NHS contract or explore a clinician-led (partial) conversion, we’ll give you the insight and support needed to move forward with confidence.
The dental landscape continues to evolve, with NHS reform and ongoing uncertainty leading many practice owners to reconsider the future of their businesses.
Our State of NHS Conversion 2026 Report draws on insights from practices that have successfully transitioned from NHS to private dentistry, alongside feedback from dental professionals across the UK. The findings reveal growing interest in NHS-to-private conversion as practice owners seek greater clinical freedom, improved financial stability, and enhanced patient care.
Download the report to discover the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of UK dentistry.
NHS-to-Private: 2026 Report
With experience supporting dental practices across the UK since 2009, Patient Plan Direct has developed a proven approach to NHS-to-private conversion.
Our dedicated team understands the practical, financial, and emotional considerations involved in moving away from NHS dentistry. We provide expert guidance throughout the process, helping you minimise risk and maximise the opportunity for a successful transition.
This is a significant decision for any practice owner, but you won’t face it alone. From initial planning through to launch and beyond, we’ll be with you every step of the way.
Book a CallOur proven five-step conversion process has helped hundreds of practices successfully transition from NHS to private dentistry.
The process is designed to assess your practice’s viability, identify opportunities, minimise risk, and ensure your patients and team are fully supported throughout the journey.
We assess your practice dynamics, reviewing and considering specific indicators and areas that we know are key to a successful transition.
We advise you on an ideal plan structure and forecast the plan revenue required to replace your current NHS income (alongside private treatment income).
We ensure the practice’s team is fully trained and engaged with the transition process and rationale for the change. Dental plans may be new territory for some, so it’s essential that everyone is fully on board.
We will manage the patient communication process, providing promotional materials and manage mailings to patients that clearly explains the change and their options.
In the early stages of the transition, we offer in-practice support via our expert team, who are on hand to deal with any queries, no matter how big or small.
One of the most common concerns among practice owners considering NHS-to-private conversion is financial risk.
That’s why every conversion project we undertake includes a personalised financial and viability assessment to forecast membership plan revenue and provide confidence in your decision-making.
If you’d like an initial indication of whether your practice could successfully transition away from NHS dentistry, try our NHS-to-Private Conversion Calculator.
The calculator uses key practice data to estimate how many NHS patients would need to join a private dental membership plan for a conversion to be commercially viable. In just a few minutes, you’ll receive an indication of your potential conversion success. From there, we recommend booking a no-obligation, in-depth meeting with our team to fully assess your practice’s potential for a successful conversion.
Conversion Calculator
At Patient Plan Direct, we believe successful NHS-to-private conversions are built on people, not just processes.
While we embrace technology and innovation to streamline plan administration, our support remains highly personal. Our experienced team will work directly with your practice, delivering on-site training and supporting your team during the crucial conversion period.
We’ll also provide professionally designed, practice-branded patient communication materials to help explain the transition clearly and confidently. From patient letters and FAQs to promotional materials and other membership plan marketing support, we’ll help ensure your patients understand the benefits of your new private dental membership plan.
Our goal is to help you strengthen your practice brand, improve patient engagement, and maximise membership uptake.
Patient Plan Direct is one of the UK’s most cost-effective dental plan providers.
Our administration fee starts at £1.36 per patient per month and reduces as your plan membership grows, so you’ll never pay more than this rate. This allows practices to retain more revenue while still benefiting from comprehensive support, technology, and conversion expertise.
Today, more than 1,000 UK dental practices trust Patient Plan Direct to administer their membership plans and support their long-term growth.
If you’re considering a move away from NHS dentistry, we’d welcome the opportunity to discuss your situation and demonstrate how our flexible fee structure and conversion support can help your practice achieve its goals.
Book a CallDon’t take our word for it! Hear our clients share their experiences of working with Patient Plan Direct when converting from NHS to private dentistry.
To determine if transitioning from NHS to private dentistry is the right choice for your dental practice, we’ll schedule a discovery meeting with one of our highly experienced Business Development team members. Whether you want to make a full dental practice or a clinician-led conversion, we will conduct a thorough viability analysis and financial forecasting exercise. We’ll explore and assess certain indicators and areas that are key to a successful transition. Additionally, we’ll delve into your long-term goals and objectives to better understand your vision.
Ultimately, we ensure you have a clear idea of what the change and process are likely to look like and will always let you know if, for any reason, the transition is not advisable.
During our financial forecasting exercise, we will take information relating to your UDA’s (volume and value), how many hours per week each dental clinician works, your private fees, the number of fee-paying and exempt adult NHS patients you’ve seen in the last 24 months, as well as how many NHS children you see.
Based on this data, our calculator tool will recommend an optimal membership plan structure and target the number of patients to have on a dental practice plan to replace your current NHS income. Importantly, we’ll ensure adequate time to deliver treatments alongside routine care. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that the number of patients you need to retain is often lower than expected.
You must provide NHS England or your LAT (if in Wales) with a three-month notice, which must be submitted in writing. While things differ under the Scottish contract, we will clarify the optimal approach.
We will handle the patient communication process on your behalf, under your practice branding. Our team has developed tried-and-tested letter templates that will notify your patients of the upcoming changes. These letters provide a three-month notice period and clearly explain a patients’ options, making it as easy as possible for them to join one of your dental practice plans.
The letter can be tailored, allowing you to express your reasons and rationale for the change. Enclosed with the letter are promotional leaflets that comprehensively explain your plan offerings for both adults and children. Along with a Direct Debit mandate, which patients will need to complete and return to join your dental practice plan. We’ll also include a QR code in the letter, allowing patients to join online from the comfort of their homes.
We will organise a training session to ensure your team is fully prepared, trained, and engaged with the upcoming changes. The training will cover the rationale for the change unique to your dental practice and the potential patient questions or objections, equipping your team with effective responses.
Securing a children’s only NHS contract would require discussions with NHS England or NHS Wales area teams. In our experience, obtaining such a contract is unlikely, as practices are encouraged to offer equitable services without cherry-picking patients based on age.
We can offer guidance on setting up plans for children. You can start plan membership from a specific age, and may opt to offer free-of-charge preventative care for much younger children.
Our team will be by your side throughout the entire process, from the initial planning steps to training your team and being there once the news is communicated to patients. When letters are sent to patients, one or more of our team will be onsite at your dental practice in the early stages to help and support where necessary. We’re committed to ongoing support, including regular review meetings and team training, as and when required.
Yes, it’s possible for one (or more) dentists to initiate a ‘partial or clinician-led conversion’, retaining your NHS contract. This often involves the Principal or the longer-serving clinicians transitioning to private practice while other dentists continue seeing NHS patients. However, this type of conversion requires careful planning to explain the situation to patients and manage their expectations. It is less popular these days for various reasons, which our Business Development team can explain during an exploratory meeting.
During the transition period, it’s important to note that you must give patients and NHS England or the Welsh Health Board three-months notice to terminate your contract. Your usual NHS income will continue during this notice period. Afterward, you’ll start receiving a regular, guaranteed monthly income from your plan members and private treatment fees. The speed at which private income becomes significant depends on diary planning and the confidence of your clinicians in prescribing private treatments and discussing fees. Your Business Development Manager will provide detailed guidance on this matter. We also recommend informing your bank and accountant of the changes you are making in the practice.
When running a viability report for a practice in Scotland, we take all the following into account:
We support the practice/clinician to ensure notice of deregistration is given to patients to ensure they fulfil the requirements of the NHS income.
As Scottish practices are only paid for what they deliver, it is easier to support partial conversions where practices may still wish to see children under the NHS. This can often be a useful middle ground for parents and optimises the dental plan uptake for adult patients.
We work with the practice to ensure all income seen from the NHS, in its various forms, is accounted for in the initial viability assessments, and we also support practices to ensure they fulfil any contractual requirements – such as notice of deregistration – to prevent any unnecessary delay/fall out to the conversion process.
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