Hempsons advises on creation of largest GP super-partnership in country
Hempsons has advised on the establishment of the Our Health Partnership (“OHP”), a super partnership formed by the merger of 35 GP practices in central Birmingham.
OHP, which started on 1 November, has 146 partners and covers a patient population of just under 300,000.
It is three times the size of the largest existing super partnership and the largest single GP partnership in the UK.
According to Hempsons, fundamental for the OHP Partners was the principle of retaining a strong element of autonomy over their respective practices, whilst forming one new single partnership.
“The team succeeded in this and ensured that the partnership agreements of the merging practices were not made redundant by the merger,” the law firm said.
Hempsons added that whilst premises had initially been retained by the partners of the merging practices outside of the OHP Partnership, the Partnership Board was going to implement a project to identify options for bringing the premises pool together and leveraging benefits and protections from this.
Vish Ratnasuriya, a GP Partner at the Lordswood Surgery and Chair of the Transitional Board appointed to implement the merger, said the benefits of setting up the OHP included:
- Working together with local providers in health and social care to develop new and better ways of providing the best possible care for patients, and to keep patients out of hospital and treated in or closer to their home;
- Freeing up time for doctors and clinicians to spend with patients by having management, administrative and regulatory requirements dealt with centrally;
- Providing protection against the risks of competition from other providers; and
- Supporting the practices and reducing the risk of practices failing and closing.
Hempsons was appointed to assist with the merger following a competitive tender process.