Virgin territory

I recently read an interview with the former chief executive of Virgin Healthcare, a brand which is now providing 80 separate services to the NHS across the UK. As the interviewer notes, you can either see this as "corporate greed driving privatisation of the NHS", or you could contend that Virgin believes it has something to offer the NHS and patients. No prizes for guessing which its ex-boss chooses.

He describes a recent visit to A&E with a suspected heart attack (unfounded, as it happened), and says that while the clinical care was excellent, the patient experience was far from it. Poor signage, poor access, limited parking ("the staff car park was three times bigger than the patients'") and customer service scripted by John Cleese. You know the sort of thing.

Arguably, that kind of experience is much less prevalent in primary care, especially dentistry. When there is such a direct connection between the success of a business, its ownership and staff, and the satisfaction of patients. It is not surprising that the CQC found our services to be the most compliant of any sector so far regulated; particularly when the patients attend electively for the most part.