GP SURGERY NEW PREMISES & NHS REIMBURSEMENT RENT APPEAL CASE STUDY –

Bryan is frequently approached by GP practices to review the amount of NHS reimbursement rent they receive. One such enquiry related to a surgery in Willesden Green, Northwest London. The GP practice were keen to increase the level of reimbursement rent to cover their actual rent and had spoken to several healthcare surveyors before contacting Wootten Dean; all the other firms had advised that there was no merit in challenging the District Valuer’s assessment of reimbursement rent in this instance.

Bryan reviewed the assessment and decided that an increase in the reimbursement rent could be secured: “I could see that an increase was possible by adopting a different approach to the assessment of the reimbursement rent. I knew this would involve quite a bit of time and effort researching market evidence and negotiating with NHS England and the CCG, but I could see that the Practice were really in need of support, and I wanted to help.”

Dr Najim was the partner liaising with Bryan throughout the appeal process: “I spoke to about a dozen GP surveyors, including all the major companies, all of whom told me that it would be impossible to increase our notional rent. Bryan was the only surveyor who said that he could increase our notional rent, and he was true to his word, increasing our notional rent from £25,000/annum to £45,000/annum! It was great working with Bryan as he clearly understood how best to engage with the NHS and the District Valuer to ensure we received a significant increase in our reimbursement rent.”

Bryan reflected on the outcome of the appeal, which took over 12 months to complete: “This was not a straightforward appeal to deal with; in truth the delays involved were frustrating at times, but the significant increase was backdated to the review date, so the delays did not reduce the overall additional funds received by the Practice”.

Bryan is also supporting the practice in seeking NHS approval for a desperately needed new surgery. Dr Najim commented, “Our practice has since decided that we need a new purpose-built site. Bryan gave us the know-how and belief that we could develop our own state of the art purpose-built health centre, that we the partners own. We have very little capital, but Bryan’s expertise has shown us that owning our own site is still possible. He also gave us a vision of how a purpose-built site can enhance our clinical care and has since helped us secure initial support for our potential new site from the ICB and helped us develop architectural plans. We are now moving to formal business case submission to the ICB, planning permission and bank financing. None of this would have been possible without Bryan’s guidance. Bryan’s experience in knowing how to progress new surgery proposals, both in terms of working with the NHS and bringing together the team of professionals needed has been instrumental to the success of our project to date.”