Managing your supply chains
Tip of the week 2: Are there missing links in your private practice’s supply chains? Vanessa Sanders has some advice.
Traditionally, few consultants engage with many supply chains because the nature of the business is the supply of a service. But there are some: renting space via a consulting room in a private hospital, for example. 
Many specialists found this supply halted immediately at the close of business for the private market due to the pandemic and they were left without any form of communication with their patients.
Some were also left without knowledge of and access to systems for the use of data because the management of this had been outsourced or did not belong to the doctor, so they found themselves at the mercy of their supplier.
This lack of access to data is not acceptable.
If you need to stay connected to your patient source, then now is a good time to consider how you can enhance your offering using technology.
Those consultants who are able to engage with their customers virtually, as far as possible, will be the ones who will spring back stronger.
Vanessa Sanders (right) is a partner with accountancy, finance and tax advisory medical specialists Stanbridge Associates Ltd