Hundreds of the former patients of Desmond D’Mello who we act for have been giving our specialist Daybrook Dental Team a real insight in to what it was like as a former patient of the media dubbed ‘Dirty Dentist.’
Some are shocked and surprised that they have been let down by someone they called a friend; others say that they could “see it coming” given the nature of how he worked; others are frightened about being exposed to such dangerous blood-borne infections.
The overall feeling is one of unhappiness – which is hardly surprising.
One of the more common things that people are saying is how rushed and busy the practice was. It is thought that he was trying to see huge volumes of patients in short periods of time to maintain healthy profit margins.
Unfortunately he achieved this by neglecting to follow important NHS infection control procedures.
Former patients, now claiming with us, have confirmed the following:
- Appointments were ‘in and out’ in nature – with some lasting less than two minutes
- There was a trend of informing patients work needed to be done but unnecessarily delaying it – “we’ll do it in a few months” was a common phrase for some
- The waiting rooms were packed and busy and the practice was classed as a “conveyor belt” system
- D’Mello would regularly be seen rushing up and down corridors as he raced to see as many patients as possible
So in hindsight, a lot of people have connected the dots and realised what they had never considered before. The fact that he was such a nice person meant he was able to get away with it because no one questioned the way the practice was run. He was seen as “our dentist Des” and the vast majority of people we act for have said how shocked and let down they are given how friendly he was.
But now people feel that they were simply treated like “cattle” and were rushed in and out and exposed to dangerous infections. That’s why our specialist team are leading the way in the fight for justice for victims affected by what has happened.
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