Virgin Healthcare

The future of general practice is set to change and one new aspect of the primary care scene will be surgeries set up by private group Virgin Healthcare.

Mark Adams, chief executive of the group, explains why he believes Virgin has a role to play and how things could change.

What the problem is

"In the UK there is a clear economic imperative for change. We've seen an unprecedented level of new investment going into the NHS over the last 11 years - £35 billion increasing to £100 billion.

"If we felt 'job done, the NHS is fully sustainable and demand's gone away', then maybe there'd be other options in play. But the reality is that we are all familiar with the demographic challenges and that we are looking at an increase over the next ten to 15 years of a doubling in the over 90s and something like a 50 per cent increase in the over 65s.

"When the NHS was founded there were 5.3 million people over the age of 65; by 2015 there's going to be 11.3 million and when you look at the fact that the NHS costs about £1,600 per person that's massively skewed towards older age. We know that 60 per cent of healthcare demand comes over the age of 65 and by the time you're getting into your 80s and 90s the cost rises towards almost £10,000 per person.

"When you take into account demands coming our way such as obesity and other social issues there's a real need to get out and to drive a change in patient behaviours in terms of their own responsibilities. The average primary care practice does a phenomenal job with incredible efficiency."

What improvements can be made

"Without the gatekeeping role of general practice we would be in a right mess in the NHS. But if we are going to look at education, empowerment, motivation and changed behaviours, are there aspects that we can do working with local employers, and local community groups?

"To say 'gone are the days when you just sit back and wait to become ill and then wait for expensive care' and look at how you can head off that problem for as long as possible requires some modernisation and some fresh thinking.

"What we believe at Virgin is not that we should join the bandwagon of centrally-imposed, top-down new entrance into primary care, but that we should sit down with local GPs, talk about their local challenges, look at how we can modernise, scale and refresh primary care; and look at aspects such as quality, education and empowerment, and innovation in terms of telemedicine.

"We will very much be working with the doctors, who retain clinical and financial independence, and with organisations like us that might have a different way of getting messages out to communities and bring an aspect of innovation in terms of communication and the way in which practices are run and the way in which practices are financed.

"At this stage we're about four to five months from opening our first practice so a lot of what Virgin Healthcare is saying is theoretical. But what we were very keen to do was not to come out and do a media launch but to talk to doctors and say that we're not going to come into any area unless you invite us in; if you invite us in this has got to be a joint vision about creating something special for the community and ultimately there's got to be a cultural fit and a vision about what we can provide together.

"We've spoken to 3,000 practices and we've got something like 300 who want to talk to us and about working with us in the future. We know we're not perfect as an organisation and we don't pretend to have all the answers. But what we do believe is that we are an organisation that is good at innovation, we do have capital resources and if we can form a good partnership with GPs and support them with the challenges that we all face into the future we think that there is a role for us to play."

To find out more about Virgin Healthcare click here.