healthcare 15
Business success and putting patients first go hand-in-hand
Onlookers could be forgiven for thinking that when it comes to hard-edged business decisions, compassion comes low on the list of priorities, even in the world of healthcare. For Barclays, though, such reasoning would be far from the truth, with head of healthcare Paul Birley and his team going to great lengths to support and work with the best operators rather than just the most commercially aware
The good news, though, is that those two things tend to go hand in hand. As Birley pointed out: “It‘s the care homes and other health facilities that put the patient first and do a great job that are the most successful and therefore make most sense for us to work with.“
Birley tells the story of a Barclays-financed dementia care home that was having problems with a difficult elderly patient.
“How ever hard the staff tried to calm him, the man was disruptive, noisy and almost impossible to manage,“ he said. “In response, staff researched the patient‘s past and discovered that he had spent his working life in farming and that his favourite time of day was the early morning.
“Every day he would relish the dawn of a new day, go outside and collect the eggs from the hen house and then bring them back to his wife before sitting down with her for breakfast.
“Now, every single morning, the staff of the care home hide eggs in the grounds. The patient goes outside, finds the eggs, brings them back indoors and is happy and settled for the rest of the day.“
It‘s a fantastic story, but does making one elderly man happy really matter? “Absolutely. This particular home is running at capacity and has a long waiting list. Customer-focused businesses that care about good service tend also to be successful,“ Birley explained, “and that‘s not a coincidence.“
The accelerating rate of change in medicine and healthcare is providing many new opportunities within the sector.
Those opportunities include the new integrated approach designed to make the best use of limited funding by combining health and social care budgets and responsibilities.
Birley, who has been with Barclays for 31 years, set up the health team 12 years ago and now looks after 20 relationship directors and support staff from the Canary Wharf headquarters while the southern healthcare team consists of eight
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JULY/AUGUST 2012 Paul Birley
relationship directors and is led by joint heads Satish Kanabar and Roger Cowap.
As well as funding healthcare services including residential homes, Barclays has a 35% share in c50 of the foundation trusts.
own synagogue and there are plenty of homes with cafes and internet access.
If a
grandparent falls asleep, the grandchildren can do a bit of social networking and then come back later.
It‘s all about providing more fulfilling lives for patients.“
And in addition currently: “There are numerous cases of patients being cared for in a non-surgical situation within an NHS setting when they could be better – and for better value – looked after for a short time in a care home,“ he said. “A care facilitiy doesn‘t have to be the place people go to end their life.“
As well as debt funding and normal banking and treasury facilities, Barclays offers investment bank products, merger and acquisition advice and numerous networking opportunities.
The bank‘s Care Conversation networking group brings together key care professionals every six to eight weeks and this year has had high-profile speakers such as David Behan, Sir David Nicholson and Stephen Dorrell. Earlier this year Birley hosted a 70-strong conference call with a representative from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
It supports high-street outlets such
as dental practices, day nurseries and funeral directors and invests in the medical technology and pharmaceutical sectors.
Finding the best operators can involve looking in some unexpected places – such as the linen cupboard. “It needs to be slightly tousled,“ he explained. “It should be the most used part of any care home, so if it‘s pristine then there‘s something wrong. On the other hand, if it‘s in a real state then that doesn‘t say much for the rest of the home.“
Birley believes that despite the bad press that some homes receive, the sector is generally improving, and he pointed out that the ‘care in the community‘ approach of a decade or so ago has been turned on its head.
“These days the community tends to be coming into the care homes,“ he continued. “We work with a Jewish home that has its
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The southern team recently hosted a panel debate on the future of the care home industry featuring Birley, Martin Robb from Christie & Co, Segun Oladokun from the Care Quality Commission and Sheila Scott OBE, chief executive of the National Care Association.
“We are in a period of rapid change balanced by a number of factors that imply caution, but at the end of the day I believe that any change is an opportunity and Barclays is here to help make the most of those opportunities.“
Details: Howard Ellard Southern healthcare specialist 07775-548398
howard.ellard@barclays.com
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