Give patients a nice ambience

To be successful, PPUs have to deliver the ‘Best of Both‘ promise, says Philip Housden. They have to convince consultants that their patients’ experience will match expectations of what they should expect from privately-funded care and give the peace of mind that comes from having the whole NHS there as back-up.

Last month’s article considered how best to ensure that the PPU delivers commercial and service gains for the NHS trust. It’s vital to protect bed capacity for private patients first – but unused private patient bed days should pull in NHS patients to keep occupancy high.

This way, bed protection maximises the benefit to the whole NHS trust twice: new income and most intensive use of resources.

‘Ring-fencing’ enables the benefits of private care to productively and symbiotically co-exist within the heart of the trust: part of the ‘Best of Both’ approach that encapsulates what PPUs are about.

It’s now winter, dark outside for longer, and so attention turns inwards. Therefore, I want to develop the inpatient theme a little further, exploring the private patient journey within a NHS trust.