A specialist breakout session examined the pathways for NHS and overseas organisations to develop opportunities
Following on from the previous session on the NHS in international markets at the Healthcare World Festival, a breakout session was held to discuss, debate and discover the best methods for international organisations and the NHS to operate in partnership. Also joining the panel from the previous session was Chris Born of Healthcare UK, hoping to unravel some of the intricacies of exporting healthcare services in the UK.
The panel itself was held in a Question and Answer format, allowing guests from wherever they were in the world to interact with the speakers directly. The session began with a question from the audience focused on how the NHS can best function in a competitive global market.
Q: There is plenty of competition in global healthcare markets – the NHS is a huge player, but there are many others out there. How can the NHS best operate within this context?
Emma: Competition is inevitable. There may be competition between individual trusts, markets, healthcare systems, or different businesses. What I would say is there is huge opportunity out there – and mostly that rests on finding your ideal position to meet it. In any situation it may be that you’re not able to meet demand, but it is important is to scope out what you have to offer, and what competitive landscape exists in that field.
I would guard against having the mindset that competition is a bad thing for your business. There is so much opportunity, and it could be counter-productive if you find your place but worry about the competition rather than your ability to deliver.
Carly: If you’re clear about your offer, then you can be on the front foot when you’re entering a competitive international market, and you can avoid opportunities which don’t best fit your individual offer.
When marketing our own company globally, I have seen a genuine happiness to join up as part of a UK offer – different organisations from within the UK joining together as part of a cohesive offer – oncology, for example. Individual organisations can be much more powerful on the global market when part of a well-organised group.
Chris: The NHS probably lacks the cut and thrust of some of the private competitors who are used to trading on a very commercial basis, but what we do have is something very special: the largest public health system in the world.
The fact that there is a very strong ethos for the NHS to do a great job for the patients and the community that they work with, and it not solely a commercial interaction, provides great value to providers in these markets.
Q: From the legal perspective, what are the key issues in getting stronger propositions together across different organisations in collaborative offers?
Carly: In terms of joint offers from organisations who are working together on an opportunity, there are various steps you can take with regards to bidding for an opportunity. You have to consider what each role will be – you’ll want to put NDA’s and confidentiality agreements in place at the outset.
Once you have that, you figure out how you want to work together – who’s bringing what, who’s doing what, and you can build a contractual arrangement surrounding the commercial offerings, and how the parties will work together – either in the ‘bidding’ phase or the ‘doing’ phase. It will be very dependent on what is being offered – but there is always a way of writing that down and making it contractually binding. It would also depend if it was just a one-off arrangement, or a partnership which may be long-term.
The key things to ensure that are embedded very clearly are the expectations of each of the parties; what are they doing, how are they being rewarded, how any commercial income is going to be shared or split and how the liabilities are shared between them – whether that’s with a partner who is a lead, or if it’s on a joint partnership level. Getting yourself protected initially is always a good idea.
Q: How much thought is being given not just to NHS organisations collaborating with each other, but NHS organisations collaborating with private organisations?
Chris: We did a survey of NHS Trusts who were interested in export, and the sort of partnerships they would envisage. Most said that they needed to evaluate each opportunity on its own merit, but more than half of them agreed that the private sector should be involved.
Private sector companies can benefit from the broader expertise and clinical offer of the NHS, alongside their own expertise in their individual specialities. It doesn’t happen as often as we would like, but it can really add value to an offer. We absolutely want to see more of this happen and we need to discover why it isn’t happening already.
Q: In terms of categorising NHS Trusts and their readiness to go international, will this information be available to private organsations? As businesses, we could be working with these Trusts in the UK, but have no idea of their aspirations in the international sector.
Chris: We do have a list, but we operate a filter. Trusts get approached by lots of people for lots of different reasons, and it can be more helpful if we can link private organisations to the Trusts which are best suited for them, so it ends up being more than just a cold call. We might not be publishing the list, but opportunities to work with Trusts will always be available for private organisations.
Emma: Speaking from my experience as a business selling internationally, we certainly wanted to be engaging with the NHS. It would offer us an advantage on the international market, but more importantly, the products we were selling were in about 95 per cent of NHS Trusts.
However, they were scarcely used outside the NHS. Therefore, we offered a point of difference which the NHS could be pushing – and we definitely weren’t alone in this. Even though we were operating in the healthcare space, with an innovative way of doing things adopted by the NHS, we ended up making our own way internationally, rather than alongside the NHS. Many organisations would jump at the opportunity to work with the NHS, share the learnings, and break down the barriers between the NHS and private sector.”
Q: What tangible actions can private organisations take to partner up with NHS Trusts?
Emma: For me, it comes back to making yourself relevant around the real area that you have to offer. Be very aware of the markets and service you want to be involved in. No ‘market’ has ever bought an offer or a service – a person within it has. You have to make yourself known to the people within that area, and don’t think too widely but on the narrow and individual level. Consider who you specifically serve best and then align that to a Trust.
Q: We’re doing really well in markets such as AI and machine learning ,for example. What are some of the other markets which you think are in need of services?
Chris: We have tended to focus on the big emerging markets: China, South East Asia, the Middle East, but we are now looking at places such as Japan and the US from where we have brought investment in to the UK. These countries are realising that they want niche services from the UK. We would always recommend focusing on one or two to start with – we can always support individual organisations as well as partnerships, and are always interested in finding more companies that we can promote.
Q: How can existing export schemes help to mitigate risk in regards to international partnership?
Chris: We had an experience recently with two NHS organisations and a private hospital customer who were deep in discussions, but realised that they hadn’t actually understood each other at all, as the NHS wasn’t able to come and operate the service. So you really have to work hard in the countries to make sure that conversations pin down what can be provided, and what the limits are, which reduces the risk.
Again, we want to be much more closely involved in opportunities, and the whole process of taking on projects and then delivering them. We want to help NHS Trusts to manage the delivery well, and similarly, if there are issues with the customer, we want to iron out those issues through our resources in the countries themselves. As long as there is clarity from the beginning, and issues which arise are tackled quickly and effectively, risk can be minimised.
In conclusion, the steps that can be taken by private organisations in and outside the UK to do business with the NHS are many – and the systems which exist can help fledgling or even well-established businesses break into new markets, or into the NHS itself. With the expertise of organisations such as Healthcare UK and experienced legal practitioners in the international healthcare market, the pathway to opportunities can be made painless – and definitely worthwhile.