News from Independent Practitioner Today
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Act now for NHS bonus
Posted on: Tuesday 7th September 2010
Independent practitioners are being advised to gear up now to take full advantage of new earnings opportunities arising from the Government’s White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS.
Harley St loses out
Posted on: Friday 9th July 2010
Consultants working in the Harley Street medical enclave are losing potential overseas patients to other specialists abroad who are promoting themselves more aggressively.
Specialists start work in former factory
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Consultants are seeing patients in a former factory after it was given a major refit.
Budget bonanza
Posted on: Friday 9th July 2010
Chancellor George Osborne’s first Budget has brought a welcome triple boost surprise to private practitioners.
World Cup winners!
Posted on: Friday 9th July 2010
Sports medicine enthusiasts turned a World Cup match into a successful marketing opportunity.
Harley Street has hospital dilemma
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Plans to bring new private hospitals to the Harley Street area have had to be ditched because the buildings cannot be fitted in.
Bupa’s alteration of recognition policy welcomed
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
The BMA’s private practice committee has welcomed Bupa’s resumed recognition of new consultants for reimbursement purposes.
HCA signs deal with Christie Hospital
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Europe’s largest cancer centre – The Christie in Manchester – aims to increase income for its NHS developments through joining forces with HCA International in a £14m venture to develop a new private patient cancer clinic.
Health MOTs face call for fee clarity
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Private healthcare screeners would be forced to display their fees in direct marketing material under plans being considered by the Government.
IHAS hails revalidation delay
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
A further year’s delay in the roll-out of doctors’ revalidation has been welcomed by the Independent Healthcare Advisory Services (IHAS).
Immigrant PMI opportunity
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Independent practitioners are being advised to grab new marketing opportunities arising from Home Office plans to force employers to buy health insurance for their non-EU migrant workers.
Banks earn doctors’ ire
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Consultants and private GPs who are dissatisfied with their high street bank are not alone – as many as a quarter of small businesses are in the same boat.
Increase in patient entanglements
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Doctors have been reminded they risk losing their livelihoods if they get too emotionally involved with patients.
Complete your reports quickly
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Doctors completing fee-paying reports are being advised of the importance of completing them quickly.
Volunteers needed for free clinics
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
A private GP has appealed for other volunteer doctors to work for Project:London, a free clinic based in Bethnal Green.
Europe-wide cosmetic surgery control
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
UK cosmetic surgeons are delighted to provide input to a new committee in Brussels, so that Europe-wide standards can finally be introduced in this sector.
Doctors asked to back new managers’ group
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Independent practitioners are being asked to encourage their managers to attend the relaunch of the Practice Managers Forum in central London at 6pm on 30 September.
Lister's new ICU
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Work has started on a £3m new six-bedded intensive care unit at HCA International’s The Lister Hospital in London.
Fat women get bigger for free op
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
One in three overweight women would rather gain weight in the hope of undergoing free NHS weight-loss surgery than diet, according to research commissioned by a cosmetic treatment review website.
Spire Leeds way
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Consultants at Spire Leeds Hospital are welcoming a £173,000 oncology suite offering cancer patients better diagnostic and treatment options.
Stress of working for small firms
Posted on: Monday 12th July 2010
Workers in small businesses are 50% more likely to take time off as a result of stress, according to a survey of 3,000 employees by healthcare cash plan provider, Medicash.
2,500 doctors in tax pain
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
As many as 2,500 doctors nationwide have come forward to declare irregularities under the HM Revenue and Customs’ campaign to target the medical profession.
Harley Street’s latest practice
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Becoming Harley Street’s latest addition brought music to the ears of a group of consultant surgeons trading collectively as London Urology Associates.
PMI rates drop by 5%
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Consultant fees’ pressure is set to intensify following a 5% drop in private medical insurance membership in the UK last year.
HMRC sums ‘fail to tally’
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
The number of doctor disclosures under the Tax Health Plan is way below what the HMRC was expecting, medical accountants have been told.
The confessional’s curtain remains open
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Doctors could still take advantage of HM Revenue and Custom’s Tax Health Plan (THP) – even though notification was due by 31 March and those who came forward were given until 30 June to pay any dues.
Cheaper defence cover
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Another doctors’ group claims a successful take-up of its cheaper defence scheme.
If you’ve got them, flaunt them
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Private GPs and consultants with brilliant practice managers can nominate them for national awards.
Doctors cede control . . .
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Consultants who jointly set up what was billed as the largest consultant-run healthcare facility in the UK just a year ago are now facing the loss of their ownership interest in their enterprise.
. . . but others aren’t put off
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Entrepreneurial consultants in Cardiff have opened the £22m 25-bed Vale Hospital, at Hensol Park, in partnership with Nuffield Health.
IDF aims to boost its revalidation role
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
The Independent Doctors Federation’s (IDF) new president has spoken of his ambition to see the group consolidating and building on its role in revalidation as a designated organisation.
BMI adds another unit to its portfolio
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
The consultant director of the latest private hospital to change its name to a BMI unit has welcomed the move.
Hat-trick for Optegra
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Optegra has acquired Aston University Day Hospital from Birmingham’s Aston University.
Bupa’s cash plan offers the benefits of insurance
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Bupa has created a cash plan alternative to health insurance. Bupa Patient Cash offers some of the usual benefits associated with health insurance but in the form of a low-cost cash plan.
Men look for surgical boost
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Men are increasingly turning to independent practitioners who can help improve their looks.
Bushey gets more plant
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Spire Bushey Hospital director Andrew Gore says the Watford unit’s new fifth theatre will provide consultants ‘with a great working environment in which they can extend their practices’.
Online billing firm plans for new services
Posted on: Saturday 12th June 2010
Healthcode, provider of electronic billing and online practice management software to the private health market, plans new services to doctors after using IT services provider Claranet to develop a virtualised hosting platform.
Take a lead on electric safety, doctors urged
Posted on: Saturday 12th June 2010
Private doctors are being urged by the Electrical Safety Council to lead the way in a new ‘Plug Into Safety’ campaign which aims to cut deaths from electric shocks.
GMC may log gripes on private doctors
Posted on: Saturday 12th June 2010
The GMC is considering changing how it records complaints so that the number of private doctors, or those working independently at the time of an offence, can be identified.
Agree fees in advance, BMA advises starters
Posted on: Saturday 12th June 2010
Agree your fees in writing prior to treatment! That is the advice in new BMA guidance being given to doctors setting up in private practice.
More than just skin deep
Posted on: Friday 11th June 2010
Doctors who forgot to register under the new injectable cosmetic providers’ scheme risk losing potential patients from next month.
Doctors charge ‘too little’
Posted on: Friday 7th May 2010
Private practice advisers are urging independent practitioners to act swiftly to stop further losses of fees amounting to thousands of pounds.
Eye surgeons link up with beauty clinics
Posted on: Monday 10th May 2010
Doctors’ eye and beauty businesses are teaming up to expand their services.
Watch out for watchdog
Posted on: Friday 7th May 2010
Independent practitioners will get a specific 28-day ‘application window’ between now and 1 September to submit applications for registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Rush to switch indemnity cover
Posted on: Monday 10th May 2010
Suddenly there are two new choices of defence body for independent practitioners. And scores of consultants are said to be making a transfer. Leslie Berry reports
Two’s amused
Posted on: Saturday 8th May 2010
The Queen shares a happy moment with haematologist Dr Mike Potter when opening a new private hospital.
Act now to beat next tax cut-off
Posted on: Saturday 8th May 2010
Independent practitioners who have come forward to register under the HMRC’s Tax Health Plan (THP) are being advised to act immediately to ensure their disclosure, tax, duties, interest and penalties are paid by next month’s 30 June deadline.
Quality mark doesn’t cut subs
Posted on: Saturday 8th May 2010
Doctors’ defence bodies have ruled out fee discounts for holders of the new quality assurance mark for injectable cosmetic providers.
Free subscription
Posted on: Wednesday 19th May 2010
New clients of PPM Software are benefiting from a free subscription to Independent Practitioner Today.
Web’s power to bring in new patients
Posted on: Saturday 8th May 2010
Web-generated referrals to consultants are leading to significant income increases, a survey reveals.
Coding clean-up but mirk annoys
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
Private doctors are being promised a more user-friendly website to check clinical codes.
Cosmetic quality mark
Posted on: Saturday 8th May 2010
Independent practitioners and clinics are racing against time to register for the new quality assurance mark for injectable cosmetic providers.
New private clinic opens in Chelsea
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
Chelsea Outpatient Centre, London’s newest prestige healthcare facility, has opened to bring diagnostic technology and dozens of the city’s top specialists into the famous King’s Road for the first time.
Beware of ‘calibration cowboys’
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
Private doctors have been warned they could be risking patient safety by using ‘calibration cowboys’ who sometimes fail to test equipment correctly before issuing safety stickers.
Spire launches satellite clinic
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
Consultants at the new diagnostic and consulting suite in Windsor, Berkshire, can offer patients a choice of location for their care.
Key is to co-operate . . .
Posted on: Monday 10th May 2010
The chairman of the UK consultants’ conference has advised doctors who want to get on in private practice to be prepared to work together.
Guildford Clinic in talks on take-over
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
Day-case centre The Guildford Clinic, opened by 25 consultants just 11 months ago, has been holding weeks of talks about its future.
Fines for lax data storage
Posted on: Saturday 8th May 2010
Solicitors have urged private doctors to beware of new fines of up to £500,000 for any serious data breach.
Fertile growth for group
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
Spire Healthcare has bought Harley Street’s London Fertility Centre. The provider aims to be the UK’s major national private provider of fertility services.
HCA looks to tie up with Christie
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
HCA International is in talks with The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, aimed at entering into a joint venture to open a major private cancer unit at the hospital.
Herbal medicines
Posted on: Monday 10th May 2010
Practitioners supplying unlicensed herbal medicines in England will have to register with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.
More and bigger for accountants
Posted on: Monday 10th May 2010
Doctors’ accountants Moore and Smalley has bought Nottingham rivals Dean Burrows Stevenson.
Fire drill urged
Posted on: Sunday 9th May 2010
Doctor employers are being urged to ensure their staff have taken part in a fire drill.
Bupa seeks your views
Posted on: Monday 12th April 2010
Private consultants are being invited by Bupa to have their say in a major online questionnaire ahead of an announcement about new cost and quality plans for the sector this summer.
Star treatment for path lab
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
Actress Joanna Lumley played a starring first night role as The London Clinic officially opened the doors to its new pathology laboratory and consulting rooms at 116 and 120 Harley Street.
Anger at insurer for widening fees curb
Posted on: Monday 12th April 2010
Hundreds of consultants have hit out against AXA PPP’s latest bid to cut costs and bring in new reimbursement limits.
Doctors’ groups fight AXA PPP’s bid to cut fees
Posted on: Monday 12th April 2010
The Independent Doctors Federation said it was backing FIPO and was in continuing talks with the London Consultants Association and the BMA’s private practice committee.
Top-deck collaboration
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
Private practice has hit the road using a bus to run a heart screening programme in Scotland.
Indemnity insurance price war
Posted on: Monday 12th April 2010
A extraordinary defence body price war has erupted as consultants fight back against rocketing indemnity costs.
Most doctors freeze prices
Posted on: Monday 12th April 2010
A big majority of doctors with a private practice are freezing their fees to patients for this new financial year.
HMRC refuses to relax deadline
Posted on: Monday 12th April 2010
Private doctors’ hopes of winning an extension to the 31 March deadline for confessing tax errors under the Tax Health Plan (THP) have been dashed.
Healthcode offers free subscription to IPT
Posted on: Tuesday 23rd March 2010
A free subscription to Independent Practitioner Today is on offer to new subscribers to ePractice manager, Healthcode’s secure practice management software package for independent practitioners.
Get patients’ consent 2 txt
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
Private GPs and consultants who contact their private patients via text message are being advised to ensure patients have ‘opted in’ to the service.
Men happy to pay for wife’s boob surgery
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
Over half of women (55%) wish to alter the size or shape of their breasts and a third say their partners would be ‘happy to pay’ for the surgery, according to a survey.
Legal fees raise negligence bill
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
The total value of reported and unsettled clinical negligence claims shot up by 40% last year in England and Wales, according to the Medical Protection Society (MPS).
Doctors sign deal to be a BMI clinic
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
A co-operative of 18 consultants, GPs and dentists have done a deal which now makes them a BMI clinic.
Use power of silence in negotiation
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
Independent Doctors Federation members have been given some quiet words of advice – ‘shhh’.
A new type of ‘screening’ service
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
Capio Nightingale Hospital, the central London independent mental health hospital, has launched a new service for a new type of patient – the ‘screenager’.
Consultants start at new Spire unit
Posted on: Tuesday 13th April 2010
Consultants have started work in the new £25m Spire Shawfair Park Hospital in Edinburgh.
Plea to ease tax pain
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
A leading tax expert has called on HM Revenue and Customs to extend this month’s deadline in its Tax Health Plan (THP) to give independent practitioners and advisers more time to respond.
Free mileage logbook
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Don’t miss your free mileage logbook – sent out free with the March issue!
Prime sight
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Consultants at the first eye hospital to be developed and run by specialists are buoyed by the news that their venture has been bought by a company specialising in their field.
‘Filler’ cartilage a joint effort
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
A medical team at Spire Alexandra Hospital, Kent, is providing a ground-breaking new treatment for cartilage defects – claimed as the first of its kind.
Forgetful doctors own up
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Tax Health Plan publicity has sparked a rush of doctors to come forward to register under HM Revenue and Custom’s (HMRC) scheme and try and avoid 100% penalties of tax due.
Doctors with late tax returns are ‘sitting ducks’
Posted on: Wednesday 10th March 2010
Hundreds of independent practitioners have turned themselves into sitting ducks for the taxman by failing to get their tax returns submitted before the deadline.
Profits up by 3%
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Independent practitioners averaged a 3% profits rise in the year ending 5 April 2009, latest statistics show.
Aesthetic surgeons enjoy a lift
Posted on: Wednesday 10th March 2010
The recession has brought in even more work for members of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
Optegra buys eye hospital
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
The first purpose-built private eye hospital in the UK to be developed and run by specialists has been acquired for £4m by Optegra.
Choose and Book boost
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Limited liability partnerships are being advised they could often do more to join the ranks of partnerships who are heading for £1m+ incomes this year from the NHS’s Choose and Book referral system.
Cosmetic surgeons told to cut 'wild claims’
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
A leading surgeon has denounced colleagues who wrongly claim to be pioneers of treatments and make unverifiable claims for the sake of self-promotion.
Ready for revalidation
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Members of the Independent Doctors Federation (IDF) are being canvassed for nominations to the post of the body’s Responsible Officer (RO) for the revalidation process.
Quality mark to cost £500+
Posted on: Wednesday 10th March 2010
Independent practitioners are set to have to pay £500 a year – and organisations £1,000 – to register under a new quality assurance mark scheme being launched for injectable cosmetic treatments this month.
GMC enters the virtual world
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Doctors attending a GMC fitness-to-practise hearing can now take a virtual step into the room where it will happen.
Beware of ‘e-dictions’
Posted on: Monday 8th March 2010
Professionals like doctors are being warned by a private hospital to beware of the ill effects of becoming reliant on technology.
The Guildford clinic boosts its expertise
Posted on: Tuesday 9th March 2010
Three new consultants have joined the paediatric team at The Guildford Clinic, Surrey.
Hilotherapy offers new possibilities
Posted on: Tuesday 9th March 2010
A new revenue stream is now available to clinics, hospitals and day surgeries who offer a healing therapy, under their own brand name, to help patients recuperate from surgery or trauma at home.
Doctors’ firm fear allayed
Posted on: Tuesday 9th March 2010
The Medical Protection Society has received a number of inquiries from doctors about whether forming a limited company would affect their MPS membership.