Before Christmas it was announced that a new voluntary contract would be offered to practices or federations with a combined list of 30,000 patients. We don’t have much detail on what this contract will look like, and at this point I would be wary of placing too much reliance on the 30,000 number - which will be appropriate to some practices in some areas and not to others. However, there are plenty of other good reasons to merge at the moment: I have had a number of conversations with practices which are effectively 'healthy' - good patient list, decent building, good practice staff, etc - but who just can't find enough partners willing to own those practices. A merger may well be an ideal solution to this problem, in that it brings more partners into ownership.
I made the point in my presentation that no-one should go into a merger in the hope that there will be considerable savings to be made. Perceived wisdom in the legal profession is that if there are any savings to be made from a merger then it is still 3 or 4 years before those savings offset the actual cost of merging! I suspect the same is true in GP practices. Any cost savings should be seen as a bonus if they arise - we would suggest they shouldn’t be seen as the main driver.
If you are planning a merger I suggest there are three steps to go through before getting the lawyers involved in earnest (although obviously we are always happy to talk on a non obligation basis if you are planning a merger):
If these issues can be sorted then everything else tends to flow from there. We are always happy to discuss in more detail.