Member Update
April 2024
A period of transformation.
SW Healthcare is now Vertis Health.
Over a decade after our inception, we’re retiring the SW Healthcare corporate identity—and introducing our new brand, Vertis Health.
We worked with our shareholders and board of directors to decide on a name that fit both who we were, and what we wanted to achieve. We also wanted it to be reflective of both past and future, and position us as an organisation integral to the Worcestershire area.
“Vertis,” our Clinical Directors discovered, was a Roman settlement in Worcestershire, and the word means unity and togetherness - both things we want our federation to stand for.
And by simplifying our core brand proposition, we've been able to make our sub-brands more cohesive - allowing us to prepare for our planned launch into new, revenue-focused services which we hope will provide us better opportunities to support our PCNs over the coming years.
The dual strands of the logo also help to reflect the two types of work we do - in keeping with the way our federation has changed over the last few years. Because it's no longer enough for us to simply manage NHS contracts on behalf of PCNs. Put simply, that kind of work isn't there, because NHS funding is stretched too thin.
So now, we're a business of two halves. We manage those contracts at scale, and we provide that PCN support - but we also operate on a revenue generation model, through innovative business areas like Workforce and Remedy that keep funding out of the private sector and in the local NHS, where it belongs.
And that’s not all that’s changing.
Our rebrand follows a significant Business Transformation Programme here at Vertis over the last eight weeks, ahead of our rebrand - including an internal restructure, and a complete overhaul of the way we approach every one of our existing projects to make sure we’re working in the most effective ways for our members and partners.
This has been a company-wide project - with teams across Operations, HR, Finance, Communications and, of course, Clinical Leadership, working together to identify new ways of working that break our staff out of silos, and into a more flexible, collaborative attitude.
Which connects with our overall approach.
Our aim as Vertis is to be more collaborative, more responsive, and more open - and we’ve already been grateful for the support of colleagues across our local ICS, including and especially our members, as they’ve helped us to develop new ways of working that really serve these goals.
With that in mind, we wanted to provide our members with a detailed update on what’s been going on behind the scenes as we transition into our new identity.
Your Health.
Starting from scratch.
Your Health has been through a period of significant transition—with high staff turnover, and a range of operational issues identified in the running of the project. As such, our CEO, Lead Nurse, and Head of Operations have dedicated significant time and attention to reviewing all aspects of the project—working closely with stakeholders at the ICB and Worcestershire County Council to develop new ways of working that make Your Health a sustainable service for the long-term.
This has, however, resulted in an enormous turnaround in client satisfaction from HWICB and Worcestershire County Council, with our most recent meeting resulting in excellent feedback on the significant changes made in a short period of time.
We're also grateful to the team at Worcester City PCN, who've helped us test out a new way of working more closely with PCNs--not without the occasional speedbump(!)--with the aim of delivering a more integrated service over the coming year.
Easier access for you.
This includes a new Direct Booking system, which will allow local venues, community organisations, and of course, PCNs, to directly request a visit from one of the Your Health vans.
This online Booking System will be directly linked with our new calendar and staff scheduling system—meaning that bookings requested are immediately added to the calendar for our team to accept or suggest an alternative date, depending on their availability.
This calendar, in turn, will soon link to an Outlook calendar which will be visible to vetted stakeholders—including PCNs, the ICB, and Worcestershire County Council—allow for better transparency and support PCNs who would like to promote the vans in their area, or send their own staff along to Your Health events.
This new process will remove a number of customer frustrations in the workings of the YH programme—as well as significantly reducing internal time costs associated with low-return processes, such as data entry, cross-departmental “sense checks” and of course, unnecessary emails... Making our federation more efficient, and a more rewarding place to work.
This is not the only change we have made, but it is perhaps the best example of the way we are approaching all aspects of our business in 2024-5: reviewing every process with fresh eyes and a new approach.
And we're already seeing results. By 3rd April, we'd already planned more clinics than March alone--showing this new strategy is a vast improvement on our previous approach. So while we're still working out the last of the kinks, we're hopeful Your Health will become a real asset to practices across Worcestershire.
Workforce.
A focus on excellence.
We've spent April undergoing a significant compliance review on our existing Workforce bank—because with great plans to develop our agency offering, we want to make sure our offering is exceptional from the outset. Our sense is, after all, that reputation here will be critical to our success, and with a number of potential revenue-generating opportunities identified, we have opted to complete a full review of the operational procedures and compliance status of every staff member working in Workforce before we begin the process of going to market.
We've also identified where some aspects of our existing workload can be outsourced to our existing supply chain, delivering more cost savings for our members--and allowing us to work more efficiently again, playing to the strengths of our team and minimising the "low-return" aspects of their workload.
From mid-May, we'll be beginning a significant recruitment drive to fill the existing gaps in our Workforce pool--and so, we'll be looking to our members to tell us where we can add to our book... Watch this space for a survey coming your way very soon.
Well.
Increasing revenues.
Working across our Clinical Leadership, Operational and Marketing teams, we have identified a new business area in our soon-to-launch brand, Well by Vertis—which will deliver select private medical services, beginning with GLP-1 prescribing.
We have worked closely with Board Members, Medical Directors and Marketing teams, as well as colleagues at external eCommerce and PPC suppliers, to develop a high-return proposition that allows us to tap into a fast-growing market and deliver revenues for investment across the wider business, as well as, of course, into PCNs.
Remedy have developed a finalised brand identity for Well, shown opposite—which positions Well as a highly premium provider, focused heavily on the GP-led aspects of the service, in line with our core USP.
We have undertaken significant cost modelling ahead of launch to calculate the proposed value proposition presented by GLP-1 medications in the private market as it stands, and believe this represents an exceptional opportunity to deliver a service that plays to the strengths in-house at Vertis, while also providing additional opportunities for locum GPs as we develop—and, of course, supporting revenue growth for our members.
Wider Services.
Efficiencies built in.
We have placed substantial time and research into improvements in this business area over the last month—including meeting with suppliers to identify the best technology solutions to deliver services around ticketing and process management.
This has been largely thanks to our meetings with suppliers for the Well and Workforce implementations, as our goal with these is to build the most efficient tech stack possible—and so as we do so, we are briefing each on our full organisational requirements, asking each to come back with the best cost/efficiency solution for both Well/Workforce, and for the organisation at scale.
We know, after all, that a significant cost for service businesses like ours lies in time spent switching between programmes and tasks—and so, should we identify a software solution for our revenue-focused services that can support across the wider business with limited additional cost implications, it is likely to result in an overall cost saving in terms of time wastage.
In tandem, we have begun the task of auditing all processes undertaken by our admin team and their existing ways of working which, for the most part, are primarily based on email or in spreadsheets—which, while functional, do not allow for the best-in-class reporting and management information towards which we believe we need to aim in order to run our business most efficiently.
That’s meant reviewing the way we deliver every single one of our existing services—from Derma AI to PCU—and identifying where we can make improvements to our internal systems, making our operations run more seamlessly across the board.
HR & L&D.
Seamless integrations.
With a view to making HR more user-friendly and streamlined for PCNs on all service packages with us, we’ve begun the development of a PCN Self-Service Portal, which we believe will significantly reduce the volume of workload—and emails!—for PCNs at all levels.
Our Head of Operations met with all PCN Managers earlier this month, who have been instrumental in providing their insights and support in the development of this portal. Our goal, here, is to provide all PCNs—irrespective of their chosen package—with a simple way to find the policies, templates, and information they need, when they need it.
Hosted on Sharepoint, this Portal will be securely located in the same area as our existing HR provision, and is not intended to replace the bespoke service offered to those PCNs who have opted into the Enhanced package—but will instead provide a simple way for PCN Managers to find forms, policies and other files they might wish to find at a moment’s notice, improving efficiency at PCN level and helping internal teams work more effectively.
We’re also developing a version of this same portal for staff members to help them quickly access their staff handbook, policies and other useful information—HR-related, or otherwise.
Our goal is to become more transparent, and easier to work with—and we hope our staff and PCN Managers will find our new portals beneficial when they roll out very soon.
Marketing.
Quality over quantity.
Across Remedy and internal work, our small (but perfectly formed) Marketing & Communications team are exceptionally busy at present, even by usual standards—with priorities including our rebrand, the launch of several new service areas, and the delivery of multiple end of year campaigns for our valued Remedy clients.
We are proud to report that the ICB intend to submit the Home for Lunch initiative for a HSJ Award for 2024—with the campaign we produced as part of this intended to form a significant part of their awards submission. The ICB have a high degree of confidence that this will be shortlisted, and this will be a boon for Remedy if so—as while it is not usual practice for the agency to be named), we will be well placed to market off the back of this to other NHS clients. Notably, the recently extended #WeAreHWICS campaign was also considered by the ICB for submission for Communications Campaign of the Year, though ultimately only one submission is permitted for this category—but its consideration is testament to the quality of work we’ve provided to HWICB in 2023-4, and the valued partnership we have with this fantastic client.
Practices with Remedy websites will no doubt be aware that we have been commissioned by the Digital team to undertake a Website Compliance Project which will help our practices align their websites with the GP Practice Benchmarking & Improvement Tool, against which all H&W practices were audited in late 2023.
Having reviewed all proposed changes, we’ve agreed with the ICB digital team a timeline and proposed plan to help practices meet all criteria required, working with practices to gather the data from them as needed in a way that reduces workload and means they can, we hope, tick digital compliance off their no doubt extensive to-do lists by the end of Q1.
Finance.
Forensic budgets.
Our Head of Finance has been working exceptionally closely with our CEO, Head of Operations and other core colleagues to identify the best ways of working over the coming year—helping us to implement our proposed changes in the most cost-effective and high-yield ways.
We have identified a range of cost-saving measures for 2024/5 that have included changes to systems, the cancellation of legacy contracts and procurement of new suppliers, and other “fine tooth comb” solutions that have allowed us to dramatically improve the way our federation operates—and deliver better returns for our members.
And our Finance team have also been working with our Operations teams to forecast revenues across a range of new planned services, both commissioned and developed as new business prospects.
This has helped us to adapt our approach as our Federation changes from a more traditional, legacy model to something forward-thinking—and ambitious about the future of General Practice.
Thank you for reading, and for being part of the Vertis Health community.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about our future.
Claire Goodall
CEO, Vertis Health