With demographics and patient demand for better healthcare services creating new opportunities, Europe’s largest healthcare partnership is an exciting success story. Circle is an employee-owned group, bringing together doctors, nurses, support staff and managers to provide the highest standards of patient care. Mike Penny of Warren Partners looks at what makes the business unique.

The philosophy behind Circle is simple: to build a great company dedicated to its patients

“We exclusively focus our efforts on what we are passionate about, what we can be the best at and what is economically sustainable,” explains the Circle ‘Credo’ – the original document drafted by the founders when the company was created.

Circle was set up by a group of business executives and clinicians who saw that giving the people on the front line of providing healthcare more power and autonomy meant a better service for patients. All its direct employees, from consultants and nurses to porters and catering staff, are partners and own shares in the business. The company has been compared to John Lewis and, like the highly regarded retailer, it encourages all its partners to contribute their individual efforts and ideas to delivering the highest quality service to patients.

However, Circle is not just a private treatment provider, but works alongside the NHS to care for patients. It currently operates private clinics in Stratford and Windsor, and runs an NHS treatment centre in Nottingham. The jewel in its crown is the CircleBath hospital which opened in 2010 – the first hospital designed by Foster + Partners, one of the world’s leading architects.

The Bath facility is the blueprint for the company’s new generation of hospitals

These hospitals have around 30 single inpatient rooms, four operating theatres and a range of consulting and treatment spaces. They also contain advanced diagnostic medical technology. The design philosophy includes minimising on-site waste and reducing total energy consumption. Fresh air and natural light are central to the design approach.

Just as the Circle facilities are very unlike typical NHS establishments, so the company’s approach to its people is different. Circle has around 500 directly employed staff who are shareholders, plus a similar number of people seconded by the NHS.

Its attitude to people goes beyond a traditional HR approach

As a partnership, it’s important for the company to encourage everyone to contribute their thoughts and ideas to improve service to patients. It’s all about reminding people that they are the owners of their business, and encouraging them to act accordingly.

Circle has around 1,600 clinical partners, who commit to bringing a certain proportion of their private practice work to their Circle hospital. The Circle approach is appealing to clinicians. They are not universally involved by hospital owners (either private or the NHS) in decisions relating to improvements in healthcare delivery. At Circle, they are actively involved in the key decisions that determine how patients are treated and cared for. The management team feel that putting decision-making in the hands of those who are closest to the patients leads to continuous improvements in patient care.

Circle partners have also been involved in the design of hospital buildings and facilities, and in planning the delivery of better patient care. The benefits can be seen best at Circle’s Nottingham Treatment Centre – where year-on-year productivity improvements of 18% have been delivered as a direct result of this approach.

Circle’s view is that it needs a mix in its senior teams of people with both healthcare and non-healthcare experience. It is keen to bring in new ideas and different approaches from other sectors such as Retail, Manufacturing, Banking or Defence. Circle looks for smart and successful people who can apply their skills, experience and thinking to healthcare.

The company has plans to develop around 25 new Circle hospitals over the next few years, and so needs to create a pipeline of capable leaders with both commercial and healthcare knowledge. These people will then be able to lead the business in local and regional areas, moving forward.

It is also about to take over the running of Hinchingbrooke hospital in Huntingdon, the first franchised NHS Trust to be run by an employee-owned social enterprise.

Circle is clearly committed to transforming the patient experience, making waiting lists, dirty wards and poor food a thing of the past

Changes in government policy to give patients more choice about where they are treated, plus the increasing demographic demand for healthcare, are creating opportunities for this fast-growing company. Thanks to the dedication of its partners, Circle is set to make things better for thousands of patients every year.