Healthcare in the UK continues to change with all sectors (statutory, 3rd & independent) moving toward more commercial models. AHPs are exposed increasingly frequently to conversations about cost and value, asked to think entrepreneurially, become involved in tender processes, performance and contract monitoring.

We have a responsibility to understand and not fear talking about cost and value – the way money is used is important and health spending impacts on all our lives. The NHS and social care sector is spending public money, health insurance schemes are spending and impacting on premiums, occupational health schemes have financial impact on employees and customers, third sector organisations are entrusted to spend wisely by their donors, individuals who pay directly for healthcare rightly expect quality and value.

This tweetchat will take the changes toward more commerciality (across all sectors) as a given and seeks to explore how AHPs should respond, what support is needed, how to adapt to consumers and customers – who may or may not be the patient.

Make business your business and join in the conversation! Here are some questions to think about before the chat:

Do you know:

• The cost of your interventions?
• How to search for demographic health information locally and nationally?
• Who is funding your service?
• If your service has KPIs and what they are?
• What is important for your consumers and your commissioners, are they the same thing?
• What transferrable entrepreneurial / intrapreneurial skills you have?
• How to look for opportunities?

What support is needed?

• Would an early business focus for AHPs in training make a difference?
• What would have been helpful to you?
• If you have business skills what has been working well for you?
• What would build greater commercial confidence for AHP’s?
• How can we engage colleagues?

Useful resources before the chat

• The Kings Fund website includes a number of resources and reports about key issues in health and social care
• Public Health England local health profiles

About our guest hosts:

Vicki Gilman MSc MCSP, Neurovation Ltd (@VickiGilman): I qualified as a physiotherapist in 1988 and worked through a range of specialisms in the NHS before finding my clinical niche in the field of neurorehabilitation.

Somewhat by accident I found myself in the independent sector and discovered an interest in entrepreneurial activities alongside my clinical professional background. For the past 18 years I have been able to combine both aspects as the founder of two successful and award-winning healthcare businesses and to experience exits from both. 

I learned from the ground up how to balance innovation and passion for effective, meaningful services with a well-developed attention to detail, a strong strategic view and sustainability of outcomes for both the individual with healthcare needs and for the business. I have had the good fortune in business to be surrounded by teams of outstanding people where 2-way knowledge sharing was firmly embedded.

I believe that more strong, successful healthcare businesses are needed in the UK and that health professionals and people with healthcare needs should be at the forefront of developments. I now work to support the development of health entrepreneurs and healthcare businesses across all sectors.

Chris Martey (@ChrisMartey): I qualified as a physiotherapist in February 2015 and currently work as a Band 5 Rotational Physiotherapist within the NHS. I developed a particular interest in service improvement throughout my postgraduate studies and now want to gain a better understanding of the changing dynamics of healthcare in the UK.

As a student I was keen to gain an insight into the business of healthcare, including: NHS commissioning, public spending on healthcare services and how Physiotherapists can evaluate their services in comparison to others.

Recently, as chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy’s Student Representatives in the South East, I led a group of enthusiastic and innovative students in discussions of therapy-related business and business concepts which we termed Physness. Through discussions of Physness it was found that more often than not students were uninformed about business concepts and how they might be relevant to their future careers in Physiotherapy.

I feel that by encouraging discussions of business and the sharing of ideas, students, physiotherapists, and other allied health professionals will benefit from an enhanced view of the landscape of healthcare in the UK.