“We want to reassure our patients that we will be back to complete their treatments and serve our community again.”
Dr Kunal Patel and Love Teeth have been featured on Lloyds Bank’s website after donating PPE to the NHS.
Dr Kunal told the bank how Love Teth sprung into action on March 16 – a week before the Chief Dental Officer of England advised dentists to down-drills.
“We realised that by keeping our doors open we weren’t helping the fight against COVID-19,” Kunal said.
“Keeping our team, patients and the community safe was the priority and we had to think of the greater good.”
But Kunal wanted to do much more than just close the clinic doors. He donated Love Teeth’s entire stock of PPE to the NHS. The haul amounted to 30,000 pairs of gloves and 1500 face masks. He also promised staff they would continue to receive full pay throughout the crisis.
Lloyds bank stepped in with a £250,000 loan for the practice, giving around 13,600 Love Teeth patients something to smile about when the lockdown is lifted for UK dentists
Kunal 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.”
Read the full case study here.