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Inverness dental clinic closes doors


By Val Sweeney

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The Academy Dental Clinic has closed without warning.
The Academy Dental Clinic has closed without warning.

BEMUSED patients at an Inverness dental practice have been left looking for alternative care following its sudden closure.

The Academy Dental Clinic in Union Street has been closed all week while owner Syed Askari stated in a notice at the premises he was closing due to circumstances beyond his control.

Five employees have been made redundant.

Discussions are taking place between administrators and the SCD Group, which owns the new Inverness Dental Clinic in Castle Street, about the transfer of patients.

Mr Askari stated in the notice which is no longer in place: “It’s clear that in modern dentistry, the business side of running a practice is extremely onerous and I am very grateful to SDC Group for taking on all of the background work going forwards to allow me to focus solely on you, my patients.”

NHS Highland is also working on contingency plans but patients are still bemused by the closure.

Just last week, David McGrath, of Culloden, arranged an appointment for yesterday.

“I tried phoning but got a standard answer machine message saying it was closed until after the weekend,” he said.

Another patient whose two children are also registered with the practice discovered it had closed via social media

“The very least they could have done was to send a quick text or email to individuals,” said the patient who wished to remain anonymous.

Philip Friel, clinical director of the SDC Group, said discussions were taking place with the administrators about transferring patients to its new facility in Inverness

“Clearly, it’s unfortunate when any business suffers issues that require it to close, but even more so when there are patients involved, and the patients are the priority,” he said.


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