Our formula to fire up private practice

Opinion.

Dr Mark Vanderpump

#ProjectRestartPrivatePractice is underway. Dr Mark Vanderpump and Rosemary Hittinger, of the London Consultants’ Association, outline what collaboration they thinks needs to happen now.

The London Consultants’ Assoc­­iation (LCA) survey results demonstrated that the consultant body – the doctors who provide the services the private sector has flourished on – have a less than optimistic view of the future

They feel they have had little involvement in any proposals to restart private practice. 

Dr Rosemary Hittinger

With our sister organisation, the Federation of Independent Pract­itioner Organisations (FIPO), we are in close touch with their memberships and the frustrations and the inconsistencies they are experiencing are informing our views. 

The extraordinary co-operation between the private hospital providers and the NHS during the emergency was to provide bed capacity should the NHS become overwhelmed. 

But the private healthcare market is not only restricted to the hospital providers; it also comprises the private consultants, the insurers and, of course, the patients who choose to use its services.