Over the next two years The Practice group, a GP-led firm, will create a federated network of regional consortia, each consisting of 20-25,000 patients, its chief executive Peter Watts explained.
His comments came after practices run by Chilvers McCrea, also a GP-led firm, merged this week into The Practice, to form the biggest private GP practice provider in England and Wales, with a total of 50 practices.
‘Bigger is better. This merger was not done for economic reasons but because bigger is stronger,’ Mr Watts said. 'We've already been commissioning for the last five years, so we have a fledgling capability.'
After absorbing Chilvers McCrea’s 65,000 patients, The Practice now has care of 152,734 patients.
Dr Rory McCrea, a GP, and his business partner, nurse Sarah Chilvers, sold their shareholdings in their company to the three GPs on the board of Buckinghamshire-based The Practice, Dr Ajit Kadirgamar, Dr Titus Bradley and Dr Jeremy Rose.
Dr Chilvers and Dr McCrea will now be employees of The Practice, focusing on long-term care for the elderly and clinical marketing.
