Call for more not-for-profit healthcare providers

pharmafile | October 30, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing NHS, hc 

Healthcare provision should increasingly be modelled along social enterprise lines, according to the NHS Alliance.

Not-for-profit groups of out-of-hours providers and GP consortia mark the way forward, it says in the Social enterprise, not-for-profit and the NHS report.

This argues that, although relatively new in healthcare, they are increasingly common elsewhere: at least 55,000 in the UK in other sectors with a combined turnover of £27 billion per year.

The NHS Alliance argues that such groups may have advantages over their private and statutory sector rivals.

It says patients may favour organisations which they feel reflect community values or preferences.

Social enterprises also have access to numerous grants and incentives and can reinvest heavily since they are not funded by shareholders.

However, the report accepts there is "little evidence that the public has any great preference for the social, as against the for-profit, healthcare provider".

But it also says the Department of Health has put £100 million over three years into a special fund for new and existing social enterprises.

And it points out that the Darzi Review encourages PCTs to consider social enterprises as alternative providers to the public and commercial sectors.

"Social enterprise fits well with the NHS ethos and values," says report author Mo Girach. "These organisations are attractive to high quality clinical staff and they re-invest surplus to benefit their patients."

He continues: "As the NHS moves further from being a provider of services to a commissioner, with non-NHS agencies delivering services with NHS values, the opportunities for social enterprises will continue to grow."

Existing examples of social enterprises in the NHS include:

Devon Doctors, an out-of-hours, not-for profit urgent care provider jointly owned by all Devon's 176 GP practices since 1996. About two-thirds of Devon's family doctors work regular shifts there and in 2007 96% of patients and 98% of GPs rated the service "very good" or "excellent".

Urgent Health UK, a consortium comprising Devon Doctors, Herts Urgent Care Limited (Hertfordshire), SELDOC (Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark), South East Health (Kent) and Urgent Care 24 (North Merseyside) and servicing five million people. The venture recently secured funding of £550,000 from Futurebuilders England, a £215 million fund supporting third sector organisations.

Central Surrey Health, one of the first NHS social enterprises, whose 650 staff were previously employed by the PCT. It now delivers community nursing and therapy services, including a telemedicine service to support patients with COPD.

The report also includes a ten-step guide to setting up a social enterprise.

The NHS Alliance earlier this year called on the NHS to spend its £1.8 billion budget surplus on facilities plus extended hours for nurses and clinicians as well as doctors to support the new GP out-of-hours agreement.

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