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Healthcare Conference

Thursday 8 May 2025, Virtual Event

The annual Healthcare Conference provides finance professionals working in this specialist area with expert insight and knowledge.

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Highlights

Sessions will cover a range of practical and technical issues to keep you at the top of your field, enabling you to provide your clients with solutions to the challenges in this ever-changing sector.
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Keynote

Professor James Kingsland OBE will set the scene by providing a holistic view on healthcare in the UK and the current challenges we are facing.

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Two streams

To cater to the different specialties within the sector, we have created two streams for a section of the day. Choose which breakout session you want to attend and you can always catch up on the other on demand!

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Learnings

Oliver Pool joins us for another year to give a legal update covering the key learnings from 2024 and how we can take these into the year ahead.

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Pensions

Pensions remain a trending issue, and joining us will be Paul Gordon from atomos for an insightful update and Q&A.

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CPD

Earn up to 6 hours of verifiable CPD by attending this event.

2025 Programme 

Please note that the programme is subject to change.

Chair’s opening remarks
Katie Collin, Chair, ICAEW Healthcare Community
09:30
How to fix the NHS - utilising corporate memory to design the future
The need for Healthcare services continues to rise, yet the allocated funding for the NHS cannot keep pace with the demand. This invariably adds to the strain on resources leading to longer waiting times, limited access to treatments and a steady dip in maintaining high quality care. So, what can you and your clients do about this? Join us as Professor James Kingsland OBE provides a holistic view of the current challenges that the UK healthcare industry is facing and how you can tackle it.
09:35
Working at scale and integration
This session aims to highlight the opportunities and challenges that are often faced when leveraging and applying scale to bring about integration & change in our healthcare systems.
10:25
Break
Following the break, sessions are split into two streams. You will be able to choose one of the breakout options available to watch at each time. Please note, all sessions will be recorded and available to watch on demand at a later date.
11:05

Choose from the following breakout sessions:

Option 1: Contract update 2025/26 – announcements and the effect on our GP Practice clients
James Gransby, Partner at Azets, will provide an update on the GP contract for the coming year. The session will look at announcements made and how these may affect the finances and obligations of GP Practices and whether they will be enough to offset the financial challenges the sector is facing going into the new contract year.
11:20
Option 2: NHS Wales contract update (2024/25 and 2025/26)
Huw Padgett from MHA joins us to discuss the recent updates to the NHS Wales Contract changes and what this means financially for GP Practices and Partners.
11:20

Choose from the following breakout sessions:

Option 1: Making sense of drugs profits
As drugs profits are increasingly under pressure, the Ash Lane team will be offering insights into benchmarking drugs profits and strategies for improvements across both prescribing-only and dispensing practices.
12:05
Option 2: Property in care homes, pharmacies & dentists
In this session, experts from Christie & Co will present a market overview of the sector with current KPIs and Sales Multiples to provide an insight into the transactional market of each.
12:05
Lunch break
12:45

Choose from the following breakout sessions:

Option 1: The use of corporate structures in Primary Care
Within Primary Care we are increasingly being asked the question: "Does a corporate structure work for GP practices and PCNs?". In this presentation, Lisa Pennington, Forvis Mazars, and Pete Farrier, Morris Crocker, will explore the reporting, pension and tax implications to GPs and their employees, as well as the technical aspects in changing to a corporate structure providing you as advisors with the tools to respond.
13:30
Option 2: VAT in Healthcare
Hear from Rob Burton, Managing Director of VAT Solutions, as he offers a look into contract restructuring: what it is, how it works, and what its key benefits are for Care Operator Clients. Rob will give a brief introduction to VAT Solutions and what they provide, along with a Q&A session to tackle your questions.
13:30
Break
15:20
Things we've learnt this year: legal update with Oliver Pool
Oliver Pool, Partner at Veale Wasbrough Vizards, joins us for another year to share a legal update on a range of matters including incorporation, SDLT3330, claims for drug reimbursement, the “6%” pay rise and the handing back of contracts.
14:15
Surgery finance
In this session, Ian Crompton, Managing Director at PrimaryCare Finance Consultancy, will discuss a number of hot topics when it comes to surgery finance. This will include banks' appetite to lend, the right type of loans, interest rates and surgery ownership and borrowing strategy.
14:50
Session to be announced
15:35
Pensions
This year’s pensions update will be delivered by Paul Gordon, Medical Specialist Wealth Planner at atomos. Paul will outline how each of the pension schemes work and their peripheral benefits. He will also provide a McCloud judgement update, looking at where things currently sit and what actions need to be taken, including the recent Remediable Pension Savings Statements. Other topics to be covered include annual allowance, lifetime allowance, partial retirement and more.
16:10
Chair’s closing remarks
Katie Collin, Chair, ICAEW Healthcare Community
16:40
Event close
16:45

Conference Chairs

Katie Collin
Katie Collin Partner, Ramsay Brown and Chair, ICAEW Healthcare Community

Katie is a Partner at Ramsay Brown, dealing with technical accounting and superannuation issues, and specialising in corporate matters within the medical sector. She also focuses on financial issues surrounding PCNs, including VAT, financial governance and liability management. Katie was selected as the leading accountant under 30 to represent the Institute internationally at One Young World in 2016.

Sally Sidaway
Sally Sidaway Medical Director, Morris Crocker

Sally is a Medical Director at Morris Crocker specialist medical accountants with over 26 years’ experience in acting for GPs and the wider medical client base. Sally has acted for a large number of GP practices across the South of England of a range of size, type and structure. Sally regularly deals with the affairs of PCNs and client mergers together with the tax aspects of clients' affairs including exposure to NHS pension tax charges.

Headshot of Guy Vine
Guy Vine Partner, MHA and Vice-Chair, ICAEW Healthcare Community

Guy is a Chartered Accountant with many years of experience working with healthcare clients in the primary care sector. The accounting and tax issues in the primary care industry have been growing in complexity and frequently change due to contractual adjustments and amended legislation. Guy enjoys understanding the fundamental issues affecting the industry and explaining the intricacies and nuances to his clients in a clear and accessible way, enabling them to make informed decisions.

Our Speakers

Headshot of Jonathan Board
Jonathan Board Director, Christie & Co

Jonathan is a Director of Christie & Co and having been with the Company for 20 years has developed a wide-ranging agency experience. As a founding member of Christie & Co’s UK-wide pharmacy team, Jonathan has been instrumental in the sale of some of the leading pharmacy businesses and high-profile disposal projects in recent years.

Headshot of Emma Crawford
Rob Burton Director, VAT Solutions

Rob is an indirect tax professional with over 40 years’ experience. Rob began his indirect tax career with HMRC providing VAT assurance on regional and multinational businesses and concluded it with the HMRC Internal Audit Division. For the last 20 years, Rob has specialised in providing indirect tax advice almost exclusively to a range of health sector clients and as a result has a deep understanding of the care industry and holds strong relationships with LA finance teams, ICBs and key relationships with other professionals associated with CQC and RQIA in Northern Ireland.

Headshot of Emma Crawford
Emma Crawford Director, Christie & Co

Emma was appointed Director of Christie & Co in 2014 and has 18 years’ experience working across the care sector in both a regional and national capacity as part of the senior healthcare advisory team. Emma qualified as a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is an RICS Registered Valuer. Emma’s primary focus is trading and investment valuations of healthcare properties for banks, investors and operators throughout the UK.

ian crompton
Ian Crompton Managing Director, PrimaryCare Finance Consultancy

Ian's background is with Lloyds Bank. He established their award winning HealthCare team in 2024, and was the banks Head of HealthCare until he retired in 2019. He now works as an independent consultant and broker, mainly supporting GP practices with surgery finance.

Paul Gordon
Paul Gordon Medical Specialist Wealth Planner, atomos

Paul leads atomos’ healthcare team, where he uses insights from his more than 20 years’ assisting medical professionals with financial planning. He continues to speak around the country on the latest pension and financial planning issues being faced by the medical sector. At present there remains significant interest around the NHS Pension as the McCloud Judgement changes are starting to impact.

Photo of James Gransby
James Gransby Partner, Azets

James has worked in the sector for over two decades and joined Azets in 2024 having held leading healthcare roles in his two previous Firms since becoming a Partner in 2009. James spends his time working with doctors and GP practices and writes for national publications on topical matters affecting GPs. James has also performed advisory work in areas such as premises developments, new models of care (particularly Primary Care Networks), succession planning and GPs entering partnership.

Headshot of Harriet Hole
Harriet Hole Head of Finance and Operations, Ash Lane Consulting

Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant, Harriet's background includes Corporate Finance and Innovation. Since then, she has spent time in a large practice and PCN, gaining insights in the unique challenges faced in Primary Care.

headshot of Richard Hole
Richard Hole Founder and Director, Ash Lane Consulting

As a founder of Ash Lane Consulting, Richard is an expert in maximising drugs income. Over the last 10 years, Richard has used data-driven solutions to dramatically transform the financial performance of hundreds of practices.

Headshot of Professor James P Kingsland OBE
Professor James Kingsland OBE

James is a primary care physician, Clinical Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of Central Lancashire, Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (UK) and former Senior Partner in a nationally renowned, award-winning general practice in England. He has designed and led major national and international service transformation projects during a distinguished career in clinical practice spanning over 40 years and is now regarded as a world authority on healthcare reform. He is currently an advisor on health reform to the healthcare systems in India, Nepal and Singapore.

lisa pennington
Lisa Pennington Client Director - Healthcare, Forvis Mazars

Lisa is working within the Healthcare Team at Forvis Mazars as a Client Director to support and help develop the year-end compliance and broader advisory services to a range of medical clients including GP practices, federations, primary care networks and general practitioners. She has acted for a variety of healthcare clients over the last 20 years and has been responsible for helping coordinate the accountancy, taxation and advisory services. She has also advised regarding set-up structure, annual compliance and exit strategies for individuals.

Oliver Pool
Oliver Pool Partner, Veale Wasbrough Vizards

Oliver has been acting for GP practices since 2005 and has been involved in drawing up or amending well over 500 GP partnership deeds. He advises GP practices and helps with all aspects of the partnership relationship, from putting in place the GP partnership deed, to advising on its terms, to dealing with disputes between partners. He also routinely advises on GP mergers and the creation of super partnerships and other new structures for GP practices.

Huw Padgett
Huw Padgett Business Services Director, MHA

Huw joined MHA in January 2008. Since joining the firm, he has gained experience and specialist knowledge of accountancy and taxation within the healthcare sector and works closely with GP clients and GP Partnerships. Huw also has specific experience dealing with the NHS Pension, VAT for dispensing practices, cashflow and drawings projections, and various accountancy packages.

christopher vowles
Christopher Vowles Head of Valuation – Medical, Christie & Co

Chris joined Christie & Co in 2008, and in July 2017 was appointed Head of Valuation - Medical. Chris has overall responsibility for valuation work undertaken across the medical business with particular expertise in the GP, pharmacy and dental sectors. With a client base of leading corporate and independent operators together with key banks and lending institutions, Chris has been integrally involved in all of Christie & Co’s major medical advisory instructions since joining the business and is frequently invited to speak at industry events and conferences.

Testimonials

A very useful and informative conference!

ICAEW Healthcare Conference 2024 delegate

A wide range of topics covered and all on current matters.

ICAEW Healthcare Conference 2024 delegate

I was impressed by the level of knowledge of the speakers covering a variety of subjects associated with the healthcare sector.

ICAEW Healthcare Conference 2024 delegate

A really good event - something that I look forward to each year. There is always a good range of subjects covered.

ICAEW Healthcare Conference 2024 delegate

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