Vivanta closure puts Balearic dental care at risk

The closure of Vivanta’s clinic network could interrupt dental treatment across the Balearics, leaving patients needing access to their files, X-rays and details of work already done or still pending. In Palma, Mallorca, on 18 September, the Official College of Dentists of the Balearic Islands (CODB) called for stronger safeguards to keep care going. It said dental treatment can last for months or even years.

An unexpected break can bring more than a financial loss, the college said. It can affect the treatment itself, access to clinical records and diagnostic tests, and patients’ sense of security.

The risk is especially clear for long courses of treatment paid partly or fully in advance. If a provider becomes insolvent or shuts without warning, patients can be left carrying the effects of a business crisis they had no control over.

The CODB wants guarantees that protect advance payments and help treatment continue when a provider cannot deliver the care promised. It also says people starting long, complex, financed or pre-paid treatment should keep their clinical and financial paperwork, including treatment plans, estimates, invoices, payment receipts, finance agreements, consent forms, reports and X-rays.

The college said dentists also need protection when a healthcare business fails. A closure or restructuring can threaten their jobs and abruptly end their work with patients whose treatment they were following. It stressed that a company’s decision to stop operating must be kept separate from the clinical responsibility of the dentists who worked there.

Topics: Health

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com