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Assura Hampshire Health | ||
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FAQ | ||
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Frequently Asked Questions
1) What is Assura Hampshire Health? Assura Hampshire Health is a limited liability partnership made up of its GP members (65+) and its partner company Assura Medical. It has been set up to provide non GMS, Tier two clinical services outside of the hospital setting. The LLP represents some 150,000 patients registered with GP’s in the Basingstoke area. 2) What is a LLP? It stands for a Limited Liability Partnership. This is a reasonably new concept whereby the debt of a company is owned by the partnership and not by its individual members. It otherwise shares many similarities with a traditional partnership. Company House outlines some of the key features of an LLP below.
3) Why are we in partnership with Assura Medical? An Expression of Interest document was sent to potential commercial partners. Returns were assessed and Assura Medical matched the vision that was held by our locality group. They are an organisation with a sound financial background in property and with expertise in areas such as IT, Human resources, service development and financial modelling. 4) What say does Assura Medical have in the running of Assura Hampshire Health? Assura Medical has one member sitting on the CMC. There are very few instances when Assura Medical is able to exert a veto within the LLP. These are mainly in regard to protecting their name and company ethos. 5) What are our aims? Assura Hampshire Health aim to provide high quality health services that traditionally might have been provided in hospital, within a primary care setting. We aim to protect and enhance our local health economy in a way that benefits our patients and members. We would hope that this will allow us, in time, to make a modest profit for our members. 6) How will this benefit our patients? Our services will be provided from a first rate primary care setting and it is hoped that this will be a more conducive environment for our patients medical care. We aim to provide these services in an extremely efficient manner with minimal waiting times and reduced follow ups for patients where appropriate. Any services provided will be fully Health Care Commission compliant as you would expect. It is envisaged that most of our services will be on a “one stop” basis where possible. 7) How will this influence the local Health economy? There is a strong commitment from Assura Hampshire Health to protect our local health economy. We are keen to work with local Foundation trusts and local clinicians and build on an already firm basis of mutual respect. 8) Will this divert money away from the NHS? Our services will be efficient and lean. We aim to provide services at a cost that will make savings for the PCT as well as a profit for the local GP’s. Profit will be diverted into maintaining the premises in which to provide these services and in developing other innovative clinical services as well as distributed to the members. Profit will be in keeping with the time, effort and expertise put into the service. It is important to note that if these services were provided by BNHFT they would be charged “at tariff” with no saving to the PCT. 9) What sort of services are we looking to provide Tier two services. These are services that can be provided outside the hospital environment. E.g. Flexible sigmoidoscopies, Urology services, Musculoskeletal services, Chronic pain services, Dermatology and ENT clinics. 10) Where will these services be provided from? At present we are looking into a number of buildings. The most promising appears to be Crown Heights (below Bramblys and Church Grange). This has been purpose built to provide medical services. We are in the process of assessing the pros and cons of taking a head lease or renting on a sessional basis. The decision will be based on a sound financial assessment as well as looking at the long term future of Assura Hampshire Health. 11) How will standards be maintained? All services will be run to HCC standards. A vigorous clinical and non clinical Governance framework has been designed to ensure the maintenance of the very highest standards. These will become part of Assura Hampshire Health’s Key Performance Indicators and will be assessed on a regular basis. A large number of protocols have been drawn up including Child Protection, Cancellation, Emergency care, Complaint and Conflict of interest procedures. 12) What are the potential risks to practices? The risk is that Assura Hampshire Health will not be contracted to provide any services or that PBC will be removed from the political agenda. In this case our members will not loose from a financial point of view. Assura Medical has underwritten the financial risk. There is a risk that our service provision does not return a profit to our members. 13) What work will this entail? Practices will need to refer to Assura Hampshire Health services where appropriate. The patient will still need to be offered choice. Practices will need a way of communicating to its patients that the GP partnership might stand to gain financially by utilising Assura Hampshire Health’s services. It is hoped that we will provide such a high quality of clinical care that we will become the obvious choice locally. We will be linking the referral process seamlessly with your current methods of referral. 14) What is the association between Assura Hampshire Health and Calleva They are two separate entities altogether. Calleva is a company owned by local GP partnership’s to put forward commissioning bids to the PCT. Assura Hampshire Health is a LLP, also owned by local GP’s, that has been set up to provide services. The PCT (via APAC) will make a decision as to what services are provided and by whom. They are able to commission from any provider that meets their selection criteria and are under no obligation to work principally with Assura Hampshire Health. There is not a situation where local GP’s have a monopoly on provision of tier two services. 15) How can we provide input into Assura Hampshire Health? Comments and ideas are always welcome. Commissioning ideas should be directed to Calleva. Feedback about our services and the referral process is essential so that we can ensure that our members and their patients are happy with the service. 16) Can I attend the CMC meetings? Members are more than welcome to sit on the CMC meetings as a non voting observer. Please contact David Wright if you would like to take this offer up. 17) Can I see the CMC minutes? Members are entitled to see the CMC minutes. Please contact the Business Manager if you would like to do so. 18) How do we manage potential conflict of interest issues? Nearly all GP in our locality have joined both a Commissioning group (Calleva) and a locally controlled provider group (Assura Hampshire Health). This presents GP members with a potential conflict of interest. When referring patients for Tier two services they have to offer patients choice. One of those choices might well be a service provided by Assura Hampshire Health. As such GP’s have a vested financial interest in making a referral to that service. Please click here for a more detailed discussion on Conflict of interest and your obligations to your patients.
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