Case Studies

Case Study

A while ago we visited a practice in Essex who had two partners and about 9,000 patients. The Partners were working extremely hard and could not attract new Partners as there was little spare capital available. They avoided using locums as they were not cost effective and their dispensary was being mismanaged.

We went into the practice and implemented many changes. We helped retrain the staff and monitor their ordering for 6 months. We met with reps and agreed better discounts on the drugs they were ordering. We quite simply overhauled the whole business. It took a lot of work on our behalf, but it has been worth it. The practice have been able to take on a new partner due to the extra dispensary income. The original Partners have now reduced their hours, are less stressed and more relaxed with the business. Without the changes we made, this practice would have declined over time

Case Study 2

Dispensing Partners recently visited a surgery in Essex who were struggling financially due to the huge cost of locums employed. They needed to find a way to increase their profits in their dispensary to subsidise these costs.

We looked at their operation in great detail and found, whilst their service was good, their running of the dispensary finances was not so good. The practice were not signed upto various MDS discount schemes and their dispensary stock levels were too high, resulting in excessive amounts of expired and unwanted drugs. After several months of hard work we managed to get the surgery on the right path. They are now £35,000 a year better off and have retained our services going forward.

Case Study 3

Dispensing Partners visited a small doctors practice in Suffolk last year. The lead GP was concerned they were not making as much profit as they would have liked. The practice manager had a completely different opinion and felt our visit was unncecessary. We knew we had a challenge on our hands!!

We looked at everything and found the surgery was actually doing quite well. However, when we compared their profit margins with other similar practices we found that their figures were below the desirable level.

Through much investigation, we found that the NHS had underpaid the practice by £12,000. We asked the NHSBSA to recount their scripts and several months later the surgery got a payment of £13,215. There was no apology from the NHS. The practice manager was really grateful. We also noticed the surgery was ordering drugs to which it had not signed up to discount schemes. We got them signed up and an extra £4500 per year is being recieved by the practice.

It just goes to show that there's always room for improvement.