Overview
Business continuity planning involves preparing a contingency plan for situations that could seriously affect the long-term survival of your business. You should include key business areas and those critical to its success to ensure continuity in customer service, minimal disruption in the day-to-day delivery of services, and speedy restoration of services.
A recent example has been the COVID-19 pandemic, which brough a catastrophic amount of disruption to dental practices, both in terms of income and expenditure, and service delivery. This advice will help you to:
- Identify events that could prevent your practice from opening or operating normally
- Develop a risk matric to assess the major threats to your practice
- Identify how to manage a crisis after an event to ensure a swift return to normal services
- Assess the effectiveness of your plan via testing and training
- Comply with your NHS requirements (if you hold a contract for services in England).