It’s a long way from treating the Royal Family in the deserts of Saudi Arabia, to buying his own dental practice in the leafy North Shore suburb of Takapuna, but Dr Phil Slack has plenty of stories of his life in the Middle East to entertain his patients as he sets to work on their molars.

He bought the well established Lake Road practice from Dr Brian Robinson, virtually over Christmas, prompting his lawyer to declare: “You couldn’t pick a worse time to purchase.” But that was where Westpac swung into action, says Dr Slack. “My accountant suggested going to Westpac for the finance, as he had worked with their dedicated Health team previously. I think it was 23^rd December when I was meeting with Shelly Joyes (Westpac business banker) and Richard Jessep, from the Health team. It was a busy time of the year, and they moved very fast to fund me into the practice.”  

Richard Jessep, Westpac Health Sector Specialist says. “Just before Christmas I received the phone call from Phil’s accountant saying he had a client that needed finance to purchase a practice. I immediately put a plan into action to tailor a solution for Phil and meet the tight deadline.” 

“Our understanding of the health sector meant we were able to quickly grasp the business, valuation method, key risks and Phil’s ideas to achieve growth. Being a full financial service provider, we were able to also provide Phil the New Zealand Dental Association package of business and personal financial products,” says Richard.

Normally, Phil said, medical practitioners like him would approach one of the traditional lenders for the medical industry, but Phil felt it would be good to try the Westpac Health Industry Specialists, and was pleased with their rates and their service.

Phil took over the practice in January this year, the first practice he has owned. As he had completed several months of successful locums in the long-standing and popular practice over the past two years, he had already met and treated many of the clients. Previously Phil had travelled and worked extensively overseas in dental practices including a couple of fascinating stints in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Europe, Dubai, Singapore and New Zealand. So settling into owning a practice is just another adventure for Phil.

The practice is located in Lake Road, Takapuna, next to the Methodist church. Phil is in the process of changing the practice name to Lake Road Dental and is also updating the website and signage. Phil had previously worked in the Eastern suburbs and he is now welcoming many of his previous clients to his Takapuna practice.

It’s a bit of a learning curve for Phil, but he’s happy to let Lyle Irwin from Prince and Partners run the accounting side of the business, and combined with Westpac Online Banking Phil can easily keep an eye on the bottom line.

“Westpac’s Online Banking, I have to say, is fantastic! It’s easy to print things off as well. I’m not great at looking at spreadsheets and quite frankly, I don’t want to learn – I leave that to the professionals,” he says.  

The original owner, Brian Robinson, who is transitioning into retirement is continuing to practise two days a week, alongside Phil as Phil learns what is involved in running and managing a busy practice. Thanks to Brian’s work over 30 years, the practice has a large base of loyal clients and a long-standing reputation for excellence, which Phil intends to continue. 

But he knows he won’t get called out at two in the morning to treat a Royal prince’s sensitive tooth, as he did in Saudi Arabia. Nor does he need crystal rinse glasses for his clientele. But he can still regale his captive clients with adventurous tales from his travels – a wonderful distraction for them!