Services and Partnerships with doctors

• Low-value services icon plus

  The following low-value services are provided free-of-charge to referring clinicians with practising privileges at HCA facilities:

  • General services to ensure appropriate clinical care (such as in-house training, chaperones)
  • Workplace amenities (e.g. free/subsidised tea and coffee including for patients, on-site meals, stationery)
  • General marketing (such as general promotional events, consultant directories and internet profiles)

  Flu jabs
  As is common practice at healthcare facilities, HCA provides flu jabs in winter at some of our sites. These jabs are available on a first-come, first served basis and doctors are not given priority over HCA staff.
  
  Physician Support Services
  Physician Support Services, part of HCA International Ltd, provides doctors with access to services which support their medical practice. By partnering with third party service providers, Physician Support Services facilitates doctors’ access to services including professional insurance, billing and collections, transcription services, virtual consultation solution, and practice management software. Doctors can use Physician Support Services as a one-stop service for outsourcing the non-medical and administrative elements of their practice.

  Car parking
  Car parking spaces are provided at a number of our sites on a first-come, first-served basis. Where permits are offered to the doctors that support HCA, they are charged at Fair Market Value for that parking permit.

   

• Higher-value services icon plus

  Secretarial and administrative services
  HCA sometimes employs medical secretaries to liaise with patients, deal with correspondence, make appointments and handle patients’ enquiries on doctors’ behalf. Sometimes, medical secretaries work for more than one doctor. They help to manage complex processes such as payroll, making administration efficient both for doctors and – most importantly – our patients. Medical secretarial services are made available on a non-discriminatory basis and on equivalent terms in accordance with the CMA Order. We charge doctors for using this service at Fair Market Value (FMV).
  
  More details are provided at each hospital’s webpage (with links below on this page). 
  
  Consulting rooms
  HCA UK considers that doctors must be able to see our patients without delay, and in close proximity to our diagnostic and treatment facilities. In order to achieve this, we licence our consulting rooms to doctors at Fair Market Value on an hourly or sessional basis at market rates, which we determine by calculating the rent we pay to landlords plus overheads (including rates, services charges, utilities). Consulting rooms are made available on a non-discriminatory basis and on equivalent terms in accordance with the Order.

  Due to new COVID-19 health and safety measures at the hospitals and the consequent impact on room availability, the rates have been temporarily reduced by 25%.
  
  More details are provided at each hospital’s How We Work With Doctors webpage. 
  
  Training
  Where appropriate, HCA contributes to the cost of training and professional development of doctors via external training and attendance at medical conferences.
  
  

• Events icon plus

  HCA UK provides general corporate hospitality and social events (such as Christmas parties) for staff and doctors. Such hospitality is proportionate and reasonable and is not provided by HCA UK with the intention of inducing referrals or rewarding the referring clinician for making or having made referrals to HCA UK.

  However, no such events were provided by HCA UK in 2020.

• Equity participation icon plus

  Some HCA hospitals and facilities operate partnerships with doctors, some of whom may be referring clinicians. 

  More details are provided at each hospital’s How We Work With Doctors webpage. 

   

• Referring clinicians who also hold other positions at HCA UK icon plus

  A number of doctors provide us with clinical guidance on how to deliver the best possible care to patients and run our hospitals safely and efficiently. We pay those doctors for this service at Fair Market Value (FMV) and we use an independent company to provide assurance around our FMV calculations.
  

  Many of these doctors work at more than one HCA facility. For ease of reference, therefore, you can find more information on any such medical advisory positions (including payments made by HCA to the doctor) on your doctor’s HCA biography webpage.