Medical Practices

Buying or selling a healthcare practice has unique complexities. It is the solicitor's role to guide all parties through as smoothly as possible. Practice income depends on sums arriving from a number of sources, including the NHS, private patients and insurance schemes.

Our lawyers will remember that while healthcare is the aim, every doctor's practice is a commercial enterprise and commercial considerations apply to it as to any other business

When Bowling & Co act for a doctor or a dentist selling his practice then we will seek to put together as comprehensive a package of papers as possible so that the buyer can proceed confidently. We will assist in ensuring that the practice for sale should look as good as it can, with all the papers in order.

When acting for a buyer, or a doctor entering into a partnership, we will look to ensure that the practice can be taken over smoothly with as little disruption as possible. We will want to ensure that the Seller gives adequate warranties in case not all the representations made at the beginning are reliable. The buyer might agree not to a fixed price but a price that depends on the practice income over the next year. Again, this needs careful drafting.

Bowling & Co can also act on "Private Finance Initiative" projects. The availability of this new source of finance provides more opportunity for substantial surgery development and releases more money for the doctor's acquisition of equipment. The agreements must be carefully drafted to ensure that the funder / developer provides what is promised and that they cannot get away with doing a shoddy job: it must be recognised that any private finance venture will be more governed by the profit margin than by healthcare requirements. Private finance is allowing more money to go into healthcare than ever before. It is improving healthcare. However care must be taken and doctors entering into these arrangements must be aware of what they are entering. Our lawyers will be able to assist in this regard.