Past projects

We have undertaken the following projects successfully:

Specialist Commissioning Framework for an SHA: We were contracted to bring together the work already in hand and help secure agreement for a unified approach to specialist commissioning across the whole SHA. This included sustained support for developing performance frameworks, business cases, quality of service delivery, value for money and priority setting in the NHS. This was achieved over a period of one year, working closely with all the CEOs and the Directors of Commissioning and Finance and concluding with a handover to the newly appointed Director.

Tendering for FESC. We supported an NHS organisation as it tendered for FESC. This involved analysing the work needed, the resources available, and finally helping to develop a framework for the FESC tender. This was successfully concluded and a tender let to an independent company.

National tariff for super-specialist services. There were dramatic differences across the various provider sites. We worked with a national commissioning body to facilitate a framework for developing a long term sustainable tariff across a number of sites with disparate service profiles. This requires detailed analysis of case mix, intervention types and clinical preferences, demonstrating similarities and differences so as to enable discussions which helped secure a willingness to work to a common single tariff.

Turn-round of private hospitals. We have set up a framework to start the turnaround of three private hospitals. These were making a loss of £200k per month and we managed to get them to a point of profit within six months and £100K profit a month within a year. We did this by setting up teams in each hospital to address specific challenges we identified at review. We are looking at supporting an MBO.

Quality assurance for ISTCs: this required sustained work with NHS stakeholders, Royal Colleges, legal input, statistical analysis and the development of a performance framework for clinical services quality assurance with the introduction of a coherent set of clinical outcome measures. The framework was welcomed by the professional bodies and were due to be implemented by the DoH.

Private Equity investment advice. We have advised on a number of private equity investment decisions.

Clinical due diligence with private equity firms in detailed studies of the risks in clinical services for potential investments.

International evaluations; advice to investors on investment in an Eastern European company.

Analysis of service performance for a clinical company being taken over, including assessment of the care pathways, market penetration, service profiles and capacity of target hospitals.

Financial systems reconciliation for an NHS Commissioner. We resolved major difficulties with the introduction of new systems for monitoring and managing performance in real time against service level agreements without down time.

Introduction of an Information system for an NHS organisation which had already committed to a system but needed support to introduce it safely and quickly.

Market entry; advice for a major provider looking to enter the UK market. We drew on our substantial knowledge of the policy trends, market risks and soft information on the evolving mixed economy in the NHS.

Market strategy; support for a private sector provider with a foothold in NHS work and which wished to develop an effective strategy to build on early success.

Educational support; for post graduate training for DoH, Royal Colleges and NHS organisations in dealing with the impact of health sector developments (with a particular emphasis on the emerging public private partnerships).

Workshops: on a range of issues for commercial teams looking to develop a knowledge base in the health sector. These are bespoke to the client and draw on chosen experts from our associates.