Super-practice set to expand across England

The West Midlands ‘super-practice’, the Modality Partnership, is expected to expand across England following approaches from other practices.

The Modality Partnership, covering 65,000 patients and spanning 15 practices across Birmingham and Sandwell, has been approached by practices in London and other areas which are interested in joining the organisation.

Dr Naresh Rati, Modality’s executive director, said that interest in joining the partnership had mounted over the past year. Practices have considered way to replicate the Modality model across the UK as part of the same partnership, which would centralise back-office functions and increase efficiency and sustainability.

The General Practitioners Committee (GPC) has welcomed super practices, maintaining it as one of the few models which could retain the ’core principles of general practice’.

In an interview with Pulse, Rati said: “Over the last 12 months, we’ve been approached by a number of organisations suggesting ‘maybe we can scale-up jointly, and scale and replicate the [Modality] model in different parts of the country’.

“We’ve been established seven or eight years now, and for want of a better word we’ve done the back-office stuff… there’s an opportunity for us to scale that up quickly for patients’ benefit.

“Patients in London, for example, will still see the front door entrance to their GP practice that they’re familiar with. But in the back end, we’ll be able to quickly centralise operations – which some practices are struggling with.”