Dental group First Alba Healthcare, which has two practices in Dundee, plus another three in Fife, Kinross and Forfar has announced that it has appointed Margaret Tyrrell of Business Consultancy UK Ltd to manage HR, financial and payroll for the whole dental group.

Having worked for First Alba as practice manager from 2009 until 2019 she then set up her own consultancy.  First Alba Healthcare has remained one of her major clients.

“Margaret is the financial and managerial backbone of the business, ” said Dr Rami Sarraf, principal dentist and owner of the business. “Delivering dental services effectively is a collaborative effort. Behind every dentist are people like Margaret. Their varied remit enables the dentists, hygienists, and dental nurses at each practice to fully concentrate on looking after their patients,” he said.

Margaret, who has a PDA in Oral Health Care and Dental Managers SCQF Level 8, said: “I’m delighted to be working with First Alba Healthcare on a consultancy basis as it expands to become one of Scotland’s most digitised practices.

“We have two newly promoted clinical managers in the business now too. Together, we will push the business forward, making it strong and resilient for the future.”

Margaret explained that a large part of her role was to provide a thorough understanding of financial reporting and projections to help Dr Rami Sarraf and his other dentists understand where their income comes from and the relevant costs they incur to achieve their earnings.

“The general assumption that a dentist who does NHS treatments must be salaried by NHS couldn’t be further from the truth.” she said. “Dental practices are individual businesses and operate in much the same way as any business. They need to attract patients. Any NHS work done is claimed from the NHS.

“On top of this we have ever-changing legislation from the Health Boards. There are stringent regulations we must adhere to for the dentists to be allowed to do NHS work.

“All managers in the business can see the vision that Dr Sarraf has for the company,” finished Margaret. “We’ll keep the practices working as efficiently as possible, with high quality patient care at the heart of all we do!”