A WOKINGHAM town centre dental practice has warned it may be forced to close due to soaring electricity bills leaving thousands of patients without NHS cover.
Peach Dental Care in Market Place has seen its monthly bill leap from £709 to a whopping £4,852 with fears it may climb higher still.
Owners Dr Sachin Dhuna and Dr Mishi Dhuna are refusing to pay supplier BES Utilities and have contacted the industry Ombudsman in a bid to resolve the issue.
The couple insist they were mis-sold a five-year contract and simply cannot afford the increasing amounts which BES blames on rising wholesale costs and the war in Ukraine.
“Currently, we have cancelled our DD with BES whilst we try and find a solution,” said Dr Sachin Dhuna.
“We cannot pay these prices and we may have to close the company in order to get out of the contract. This will leave thousands of patients without an NHS dentist. We are extremely worried and our bills are mounting rapidly.”
Dr Dhuna claims that BES initially agreed to allow them to leave the contract to switch to another supplier, but then changed its mind.
“My wife spoke with them in October to ask that we leave our contract which ends in February 2025 as the government allowed businesses to leave any suppliers contracts.
“BES agreed over the phone to allow us to leave. We then contacted SSE energy to ask if we can move to them and they said we needed to confirm with BES as they couldn’t take over until they released us. We then went back to BES and they then refused us leaving for no reason.
“This has caused us considerable upset and grief and we have wasted a lot of time going back and forth with them. We have even asked several times for the phone recording of them agreeing for us to leave but since October we are still waiting for this.”
The husband and wife team are currently having their case examined by the Ombudsman but Dr Mishi Dhuna said “progress is very slow”.
“In the last five months we have been charged £20,000 for electricity which is completely outrageous. We have cancelled our direct debit with BES so they now harass us with multiple phone calls and texts every day demanding payment and threatening to cut us off,” she added.
“I have spoken to a number of businesses in Wokingham who have a different supplier and they are being charged a third of what we are being asked to pay. We have not increased our prices to our customers and do not want to.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for BES Utilities said: “Dr Dhuna agreed to our electricity Market Tracker product, which is designed to track wholesale and other costs. Customer prices are reviewed every April and October to ensure they reflect what is happening in the wider energy market.
“Unfortunately, global events beyond our control, including the conflict in Ukraine have had a significant and well-publicised impact on wholesale energy prices, and in October 2022 we had to pass this increase through to customers in line with the terms of their contract.
“Of course, we would much rather be reducing our prices, and we are pleased to confirm Dr Dhuna’s prices have reduced by 40% since Wednesday, March 15.
“This has been confirmed to Dr Dhuna via email and SMS.”
That 40% reduction will see Dr Dhuna’s bills at £2,911 per month – still more than four times what he was paying in 2021.
