BMA private practice committee overview

Private practice committee overview

The PPC (private practice committee) represents all health professionals working in private and consulting practice. Find out more about our meetings, membership and priorities.

The PPC (private practice committee) considers and reports on matters of concern to those working in private general and consulting practice.

The committee engages with key stakeholders in private healthcare to represent the views of the profession. This includes private medical insurers, private hospitals providers, royal colleges and specialty associations.

Our priorities

Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) - to participate fully in consultations with regards to the CMA’s order and private healthcare.
Private medical insurers (PMIs) - to gather information including fee capping and restrictive fee practices imposed by PMIs and seek to restore a proper relationship between consultants, patients and insurers.
Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) - to continue to engage with PHIN on the implementation of the CMA’s ‘Information remedy’, to ensure that doctors’ views are effectively represented.
To engage with private hospitals regarding the practising privileges agreements to ensure the documents have justice and balance.
To organise an annual conference aimed at doctors engaged in private practice.

Our people

Co-chairs: Dr Jennifer Yell and Dr Jeremy Lawrance
Deputy co-chairs: Dr Shaima Villait and Mr Sakkaf Ahmed Aftab

Membership

Mr Michael Henley
Dr Peter Holden
Dr Shah Khan
Dr Rachael Liebmann
Mr Ram Moorthy
Mr Rajnesh Nirula
Dr Nimish Shah
Dr Evan Sun

Develop your skills as a committee member

Take part in one of our free courses designed to give you the right skills to:

break down equality and inclusion bias (CPD-accredited)
value difference and inclusivity
live our BMA behaviour principles.

Find out more

Our meetings

The committee three times a year to discuss latest issues affecting private medical practice. These meetings are open to committee members only.

Meeting dates:

Thursday 20 October 2022 - face to face
Thursday 23 February 2023 - virtual
Thursday 22 June 2023 - face to face

All our meetings take place either virtually or at:

BMA House
Tavistock Square
London
WC1H 9JP

For more information email in[email protected].

Conference

The PPC held a virtual conference on Monday 15 November 2021.

It was an opportunity for doctors working in, or considering setting up in private practice, to get practical advice and to network with colleagues.

How to join

There are many advantages to becoming involved in our committees. You can actively influence BMA policy-making and negotiations, represent your colleagues' voices and develop your leadership skills.

Each committee has a few routes to becoming an elected member. In the case of PPC, these are:

Regional elections

Seats/term - every year, elections for eight seats on PPC take place for a one-session term.
Timeline - elections take place in June or July.
Eligibility - all BMA members who meet the specified criteria for each seat are eligible to stand and vote in these elections. The criteria will be specified in the section below when elections are open.

ARM elections

Seats/term - every year, elections for one seat on PPC take place for a one-session term.
Timeline - the nomination period opens a month before ARM, and voting closes a few days after ARM.
Eligibility - all UK private practice doctors who are BMA members can stand for election but only ARM delegates can vote.

The election section below is kept up to date with details about any running elections, so make sure you keep checking it throughout the year.

Elections

Direct elections 2022-2023

The PPC is holding elections for the following seats for a one-session term:

2 seats - elected BMA members who do not provide and/or perform primary medical services under the National Health Service Act 2006 (and/or the equivalent legislation in the devolved nations) and who earn 75% or more of their income from private general medical practice and are engaged in private medical practice to the extent of at least 20 hours* per week.
4 seats - elected BMA members who are engaged in consultant or specialist practice under the National Health Service Act 2006 (and/or the equivalent legislation in the devolved nations) and who are also engaged in active private consultant or specialist clinical practice, elected by BMA members who meet the same criteria, and elected annually;
2 seats - elected BMA members who are engaged in active consultant or specialist clinical practice, treat patients who are receiving privately funded healthcare (via a private medical insurer or self pay), have no contract of employment, earn 75 % or more of their professional income from private consultant or specialist clinical practice and are engaged in active private consultant or specialist clinical practice to the extent of at least 20 hours per week, elected by BMA members who meet the same criteria, and elected annually.