HBSUK is now a subsidiary of AXA Health. Find out more here.

Insourcing of Clinical Services

HBSUK are a leading NHS  insource provider,  working within the Trust to deliver cost-effective waiting list reduction. 

Completed outpatient appointments
10000 +
Delivered insourcing contracts
10 +
Completed surgical procedures
10000 +

HBSUK is on the majority of recognised NHS Insourcing Frameworks

What is Insourcing?

‘Insourcing’, is a term derived by our Chairman and Founder, Mark Fountain, some 15 years ago.  It simply means, using your service environment, equipment and instrumentation to deliver clinical services from your hospital or clinic.  Whilst this can happen at any time, more often than not, such services are usually delivered at weekends and evenings.   

Insourcing means delivering a turnkey clinical service for any speciality, with a full team of healthcare professionals (surgeon, anaesthetist, junior doctors, scrub nurses, healthcare assistants, ODP’s, recovery nurses, ward nurses, therapists, allied healthcare professionals, clinical coders, bookings and administration teams) all managed by the insourcing provider.  HBSUK do this via our Operations Managers. 

Insourcing IS NOT providing individuals or part-teams, this is temporary staffing provision, normally referred to as agency nurses and locum doctors.  

Why do I need Insourcing?

At HBSUK, we recognise insourcing may not be your first choice and want to review all options.  Our summary guide shows you options available for admitted patients

If you have exhausted the ability within job plans and engaging staff to do additional hours, if you have any spare clinic space, theatres and beds, then insourcing will always be the next most cost-effective solution. Whilst this is typically done at weekends and evenings, HBSUK can provide in-week insourcing teams to use any available free capacity.

The HBSUK Insourcing model is ALWAYS more cost effective than using outsourcing (sending patients to the private sector).

Our Services

HBSUK cover a number of physical, on-site services. 

Data Validation

Administrative and clinical validation of waiting lists

Pre-assessment clinics

One Stop clinics

Trauma Service

Outpatient clinics

New, follow up & PIFU (both virtually and face to face)

Diagnostic clinics​

Surgery

Inpatient, day case, outpatient ​

Clinical Coding

Specialist areas

We cater for the following specialist areas: 

Our specialities:
Orthopaedics Ophthalmology Urology
Gastroenterology Endoscopy General Surgery
Vascular Gynaecology Cardiology
Breast Dermatology Trauma
Oral & Maxillofacial ENT Neurology
Plastics Colorectal Paediatrics
Pain Management Cancer Surgery

We specialise in one-stop clinics for ophthalmology, breast and orthopaedics.  

The majority of specialist areas are also available via our virtual outpatient clinics.

We can cover multiple specialist areas in both surgery and outpatients on single sites or across multiple sites.  We are only limited by the availability the NHS Trust has for theatres, instrumentation and beds.  

HBSUK Working Process

Hybrid Team Working

HBSUK adopt a model of hybrid team working, where we can offer local staff the ability to join our teams, subject to meeting our requirements.  We call this ‘home’ and ‘away’ working.

Home teams include staff who work in a substantive role for the Trust in which we are delivering services.  Away teams are made up from staff who are not in a substantive role in the Trust for which we are delivering services.  

HBSUK can deploy entirely ‘away’ teams on request, however, are more likely to use hybrid teams made up of home and away staff.    

Having local staff as part of our teams provides many benefits, such as risk assurance, knowledge of access to systems and equipment and any follow-up requirements.  

The HBSUK hybrid team working model has been reviewed by EY and fully meets all IR35 and other tax requirements.  Copies of the EY report available upon request.  

Financial Model

HBSUK normally work on a tariff sharing basis.  We ensure you have enough of the tariff to cover for your costs including prosthesis, consumables, sterilisation and overheads.  With our tariff share model, you only pay if we see patients, hence you are guaranteed to never lose money.   

We can provide other fee models, including fixed day rates, which we will employ for the likes of trauma services.  

Mobilisation

HBSUK can mobilise inside 3 weeks.  We have comprehensive mobilisation plans and processes for all specialities, covering day case and inpatient operating, outpatients, one stop clinics and diagnostics. The process is overseen by one of our dedicated Mobilisation Managers and covers: 

  • Contract & Commercial Agreement 
  • Pathway validation (ensure ‘we get it’ right) 
  • Team onboarding & rota planning 
  • Clinical ‘thumbs-up’ and ‘go live’ countdown plan 
  • Communication matrix and Partner portal 
  • KPI and MI agreement 

Project plans exist in MS Project and Gantt format, all shared via HBSUK secure Partner Portals.  

Whilst there is a lot of complexity to running an insourcing service, the building blocks are standard.  Our high-level approach is explained here:

 

 

Communication

Communication is key to success, as part of mobilisation and ongoing throughout the duration of any project to exist planning. We establish a communications matrix, including clinical leads and processes for escalation and incident management.  

HBSUK provide real-time communication via our Partner Portals.  We do not use email to share information as is it not possible to control, is always out of date when sent, and is not as secure as using portals.  

Resource Onboarding & Guarantees

All HBSUK deployed staff go through IR35 determinations, confirming the ability to work with zero risk to clients, clinicians and HBSUK alike.  

HBSUK have a pool of over 1500 healthcare professionals across the UK.  Anyone can join us as long as they meet our acceptance criteria.  

All HBSUK consultants have full-time substantive roles within the NHS and sign our Practising Privileges agreement.  

Whilst we have different resourcing models that relate to activity and speciality undertaken, a typical HBSUK insourcing team looks like this.

Management Information 

HBSUK have our own dedicated team of Management Information (MI) analysts.  We agree reporting requirements at the start of any project and report via our Partner Portal. We can benchmark any criteria against the thousands of operations and clinics we have performed over the last 11 years.  

What our clients say