Cobar to lose dental service
Thursday October 7, 2010
Cobar residents will soon be without the services of a dentist after the Lifetime Smiles group advised they will withdraw their dental service to Cobar.
Cobar Shire Council’s special projects officer Angela Shepherd said the one year lease on council’s dental surgery in Barton Street had recently come to an end and the Lifetime Smiles group had elected to not take up the option to renew the lease.
“They said it was not a viable alternative for their sort of company,” Ms Shepherd said.
She said as Lifetime Smiles operated as a management company, they did not have a dentist based locally but had to fly in and out dentists on rotation.
“Without an air service in Cobar, they experienced high costs to fly in and out their staff to Dubbo and then they had to drive to Cobar. They also said they had experienced high training costs,” Ms Shepherd said.
And while it did not suit them to continue to operate a dental service in Cobar, Lifetime Smiles management told Ms Shepherd that it would suit and be viable for an owner/operator.
“We have started advertising the lease for the dental practice and, while we would preferably like to have a dentist living here, now that we have direct flights to Sydney it will hopefully make it easier to attract a new dentist,” she said.
“Lifetime Smiles are assisting council with advertising and documentation to demonstrate to potential lessees that the practice is a viable operation for an owner/operator.
“In the past we’ve not been in a position to be able to provide financial information, however they are going to give us financials that we can pass on,” Ms Shepherd said.
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