Starter Kit. Idea 358 of 500. Cluster 17
Dental clinics to the international standard, priced for both the visitor and the local
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
The first step
Price five common treatments at clinics abroad that Sri Lankan families abroad use, by asking friends there for their last bills, and price the same five with a dentist at home who works to a written hygiene standard. Put the two columns on one page and send it to a Sri Lankan association abroad before the holiday season. Appointments booked for the next trip home are your proof.
- Who pays first
- A Sri Lankan family abroad coming home for the holidays who would book their dental work here if the standard were written down and the price shown.
- What leaves today
- Dental spending by Sri Lankans abroad stays abroad because nothing proves the standard at home; a published standard brings that fee, and visitors' fees, to the island.
Ask first
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what hygiene inspections a dental clinic must pass.
- Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. Ask whether selling treatment to visitors needs any tourism registration.
Check before you spend
The dentist's registration, the clinic's sterilisation standard written down and checkable, and what aftercare a visitor gets once they have flown home.
Find out these three numbers
- What did families pay abroad for the five common treatments?
- What does the same treatment cost here at the written standard?
- How many appointments were booked for the next trip home?
A comparison from the book
Sigiriya. Chapter Five
"It is entirely reasonable that visitors pay more than locals."
Two prices are fair when the standard is the same for both and visibly clean.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.