Taunton Vale Healthcare

At around this time its current Managing Partner, Dr Christian Hornung, joined this business attracted by its will to take a fresh look at how the practice could be run to provide an efficient, cost-effective service to its now 14,000-strong patients; one that could survive and thrive despite dwindling funds from the NHS.

The practice was going through significant change: bringing two very different surgeries together, which were both culturally diverse; one traditional and the other very progressive.

“We realised that we needed to streamline our services”, says Christian. “We refocused to see which jobs our healthcare practitioners would be best suited to, freeing up our GPs to deliver high levels of specialist patient care.”

As part of this process, Taunton Vale Healthcare became the first in the county to create a bespoke urgent care team consisting of Specialist Paramedics and Nurse Practitioners overseen by a GP partner. This instantly enabled the practice to fast-track urgent patient care, while doctors could focus on more complex care for patients.

In addition to streamlining the existing business, the practice set up Taunton Doctors Ltd to generate a secondary source of income that could supplement the cost of services offered to patients of Taunton Vale Healthcare.

“As a business, we realised that there were opportunities to help other clinicians,” says Christian, “and so we developed a back-office support, which enables clinicians to focus on client care. This offers paid for services that are less available through the NHS, such as podiatry. It also offers new services, which are not available through the NHS at all, such as 4D baby scanning, which is in great demand. (see www.tauntondoctors.co.uk for more details). Profit from this part of the business goes back into the NHS surgery, supporting staff development and sustaining excellent patient care.”

Ever entrepreneurial, the practice also took the decision to offer assistance and guidance on mergers to other practices across the country.

“We learnt a huge amount through our own experiences,” says Christian. “We realised there was an opportunity to offer our skills to other practices."

"Today, we work with practices across the UK helping them to restructure, providing guidance on everything from finances and the number of hours undertaken by staff, to team analysis, and how they provide services to patients.”

As part of their own restructuring and review process, Dr Tim Norbury and Dr Christian Hornung realised that in order to succeed in their venture, they needed an accountant that was similarly forward looking.

“We were looking for someone that understood and supported our vision,” says Christian. “That’s when we came across Simpkins Edwards. I’d read an article about their pro-active approach and invited them in to meet the management team."

“We connected with Seb Beard and Mark Simic immediately. We were impressed with their quarterly business reports which demonstrated how they would provide up to date information on staffing costs, expenditures, and budget allocations, allowing us to accurately plan forward. Within our first meeting, we were convinced that they were a perfect fit.”

“It’s a pleasure working with Christian and Tim,” says Seb Beard, Healthcare Partner at Simpkins Edwards. “They are dynamic, progressive and open to advice. As part of their  set-fee monthly package we deliver a tailored set of services created to meet their precise needs. This includes quarterly advisory meetings at which we present management accounts for last quarter that track KPIs for the practice. We also provide ongoing advice and guidance on operational matters as well as tax efficiency in both parts of the business.”

The tailored reports are very flexible and include a full analysis of drawings and partners current accounts, a quarterly detailed profit and loss account and balance sheet, future superannuation and income tax liabilities and drawings projections. This enables the practice and Taunton Doctors Ltd to plan for future investment and growth. NHS payroll and pensions are also managed by Simpkins Edwards utilising its direct link into the NHS pensions portal providing a one-stop shop for NHS practices.

Commenting on the relationship with Simpkins Edwards, Christian says: “Seb and Mark provide a great service for us. Mark leads on corporate strategy, while Seb provides expertise within the GP and healthcare sector, a combination that is rare to find within a firm of accountants.”

“They are responsive, astute and deliver business acumen as well as an in-depth understanding of tax and accountancy advice in relation to the NHS and GP services. We openly recommend Simpkins Edwards and regularly invite them to provide support and analysis to the practices that we advise. They are a breath of fresh air, freeing us up to focus on running our business as efficiently as we can, enabling us to provide high-quality service to patients and practices alike.”