Changing the healthcare financing landscape to generate significant cost savings

A. We stayed in regular contact with our existing customers throughout the UK and offered support where possible with the PPE shortage. CHG-MERIDIAN also utilised their current portfolio to locate leases that could help generate cost savings for Trusts by renegotiating their existing contracts to create instant savings, which would allow the savings to be utilised elsewhere within the Trust.

A. There isn’t a single answer for this question as CHG-MERIDIAN offer multiple models which are creative and bespoke to each lease/MES we create, and each one can generate savings in their own way. The most popular however, are a Break and rewrite (BRW) and Future delivery model. The break and rewrite solution offers cost savings to both the NHS and private hospitals by breaking and rewriting an existing lease. We can then add new equipment into the existing lease or simply extend their minimum lease term. As this type of model would require a reschedule of documents, we work closely with each trust in order to renegotiate the new contracts (as mentioned in my previous answer). As always, we remain transparent in terms of providing a breakdown of the savings. In my opinion, this type of solution works extremely well with Trusts who decide they want to extend their lease mid-way through their lease term OR Trusts who decide they want to add new equipment into their existing lease. Here is an example of the savings I have recently generated for an NHS trust who wanted to utilise this model to create instant savings; 

Rental: £15,137.68

Original Term: 5 years

Remaining Rentals: 9 Quarters

Rental: £11,288.34

Extended Term: 3 years

Remaining Rentals: 21 Quarters

Overall Savings: £3,849.34

Future delivery models allow the Trust to procure equipment today and have fixed known costs that are flatlined so they know exactly what they are paying from day 1 for equipment that will be delivered in the future. At CHG-MERIDIAN, we know that equipment changes all the time, and we appreciate that some Trusts may want to shop around in the future for the latest technology. So, we also have the flexibility which would allow us to build in a yearly budget. This allows the Trust to spend their budget on whatever manufacture/equipment of their choice, and yes, this is also included in the fixed costs from day 1! I can appreciate that this may sound too good to be true, but here is an example of a model which has recently been built for an NHS trust as part of their Managed Equipment Service (MES). 

Term: 7 years

Profile: Annual

Year 1 Capital: £342,712

Net Book Value Amount: £341,341 

Year 3 Capital: £66,559

Year 5 Capital: £66,559

Overall Capital Value: £817,171

Annual Unitary Charge: £110,619.21

CHG-MERIDIAN also can incorporate a part exchange solution as part of the innovative models we offer to help generate even more cost savings. 

A. We currently have active leases and managed equipment services (MES) in around 75% of the UK's NHS Trusts and private hospitals. We have achieved this as we are an NHS approved financial provider with all of our services available via the requisite NHS frameworks such as; 

• NHS Supply Chain
• Cambridge University Hospital NHS Trust
• University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
• NHS SBS Framework for Clinical Managed Services
• Crown Commercial Services (CSC) and many more.

A. The creativity and flexibility that CHG-MERIDIAN is bringing to the market is designed to not only provide customers with the equipment they need, but to also simplify the procurement process by making things more streamlined to create less work for the Trust so they can focus on the more urgent matters which they face daily. 

CHG-MERIDIAN has multiple solutions that have helped change the way the NHS leases and move away from the “vanilla” type leases. A few examples of these are our Managed Service Agreements (MES), Consumable Agreements, Remarketing and lots more. However, probably the most unique within the market is offering our customers with a part exchange programme. This allows us to provide customers with a remarketing cost for their existing equipment, which they are replacing. In 9 out of 10 cases, we can provide the Trust with a guaranteed price. We will also arrange collection of the equipment, which is one less thing for the Trust to worry about, and the funds which are raised from the sale can either be used to pay for their lease rentals or as a cash injection which they can spend elsewhere within the Trust.

A. Since I joined the team, I always knew that CHG-MERIDIAN would never be a “copycat” regarding what we could offer our customers within the healthcare market. Over the years, our customer base has grown from focusing mainly on the NHS, but now we have utilised our portfolio within the private hospital sector, clinics and laboratories. We like to demonstrate that we can support all of our customers with bespoke solutions tailored to their requirements, and we are always transparent when doing so. We are constantly working on creating new models, and that’s been proven since 2014. We now have products and documentation such as the remarketing part exchange programmes, our in house asset management system TESMA®, pay per use, managed equipment services, consumable contracts and much more. We also like to stay in contact with our international healthcare account managers regularly to stay up to date with trends, share our experiences and support customer and manufacturer growth. This has proven successful as multiple countries work with the same manufactures.

To find out more about the types of solutions available (including a CHG-MERIDIAN MES, our TESMA® service or our future delivery models), please visit our designated Healthcare page here, or – to discuss individual project requirements today – please feel free to reach out using the details below: