Our Team

News

Is a Super Partnership right for your GP practice?

How GP practices can best work together at scale to deliver effective care has been the subject of much debate in recent years. Traditionally, when practices worked together it was more informal and mergers may have involved just one or two practices. However, one model that has emerged and continues to grow in popularity, is the so-called ‘super partnership’.

The term generally applies to multiple practices who merge, or choose to work as, a single entity. Some of the largest super partnerships contain over 100 partners and provide care for over a quarter million patients.

So, why are more and more practices considering this route?

Benefits of a super partnership

Joint working in this way offers many potential benefits for practices, mainly due to economies of scale. These can include:

  • Increased role specialisation
  • Shared services, such as HR and finance
  • Negotiating lower prices when purchasing goods or services
  • Shared cost of investment, for example in premises, technology, staff and services
  • The potential to increase income by bidding for larger contracts and additional services
  • A strong single ‘voice’ on all important matters affecting the practice and patients
  • Support with issues of recruitment and retention, as the scale of a super practice can provide a broad and varied career ladder

What are the options?

Although every super partnership will be unique, we discern two main models for how a super partnership forms and operates:

1. Centralised partnership

This is a partnership which effectively operates as a single unit. Each practice will be responsible for managing their own costs, but most other things will be shared.

Common features of this type of partnership include:

  • GMS/PMS contracts will transfer to the super partnership and merge together
  • GMS/PMS contracts cannot be easily be attributed to a practice
  • It will operate with a single set of accounts
  • There will be a full sharing of profits, usually based on scheduled sessions
  • There will be a sharing of costs and staff, who will transfer to the super partnership
  • A cost centre manager based at each surgery will report to the super partnership
  • The partners have full joint and several liability for the partnership, regardless of which practice they work in.
  • All partners will be subject to the same partnership terms
  • There is usually a management board of partners who have reduced or no clinical responsibilities
  • No automatic right for a practice to withdraw

2. De-centralised partnership

 

In contrast, under a de-centralised partnership, each practice will operate as a separate business unit and be highly autonomous.

 

Common features are:

  • The GMS/PMS contracts will transfer to the super partnership but won’t be merged so will be directly attributable to each practice
  • Surgery buildings will be kept separate, with licences to occupy put in place
  • The accounts will largely be kept separate with a very limited sharing of profits
  • Each practice will retain the ability to ‘hire and fire’ staff
  • Cross Indemnities will limit joint and several liability
  • Separate policies for issues such as profit share, sessions and absence for each practice
  • Shared control over partner admission and expulsion
  • A Management Board exists, but the roles are not usually full-time and comprise elected partners who still retain clinical responsibilities
  • Individual practices will have the right to withdraw

Key issues that need consideration when deciding whether to join a super partnership include concerns over surgery premises, tax implications, pensions, the sharing of information and the type of organisational, contracting and legal model that will be followed.

Overall, it is a complex process which requires a great deal of planning, so always seek the advice of an experienced legal team to ensure your best interests are protected and to help ensure your objectives are met.

For more information on this issue, please contact Nils Christiansen on 01483 511555 or email n.christiansen@drsolicitors.com

Share