Dentists from Poland and Lithuania are helping to plug gaps in the NHS dental service in Wrexham. Unusually, the Whitecross Dental Centre, on Wrexham Technology Park, caters exclusively for NHS patients.The practice has four dentists – three from Poland and one from Lithuania – looking after the dental health of 14,000 people.
It was established by Integrated Dental Holdings Ltd two years ago and has proved a huge success. Practice Manager Amy Jones said: “We were initially going to take on around 10,000 patients but that’s increased and we now have 14,000 on our books. The company has a lot of international dentists as well as British dentists. There is a rigorous screening process and the dentists are tested for their linguistic ability before being accepted.
The only problem encountered by the new dentists has been the complicated British tax system!
Anna Jakielczyk, 29, arrived from Poland 2 year ago and is now completely at home in her adopted town.
She said: “We were made to feel welcome. I am happy and settled now, two years have passed very quickly. We engaged Coxeys as our accountants earlier this year and they have been very helpful. Wales is completely different from our country, the culture and the people. In the beginning everything seemed strange, especially the British tax system”
Anthony said: “The dentists have adapted very well to every other aspect of life in Wrexham but the tax system is very different here to what they have in Poland and Lithuania. Without expert guidance they would be missing out on a lot of things they could legitimately claim as expenses – there’s nothing on the forms pointing out what you can claim against. There is a large Polish community in Wrexham and without professional advice on accountancy matters they could be losing out financially. We aim to take the pressure out of understanding and responding to technical and official documentation and deadlines.”