Bringing all types of independent healthcare providers together sits at the heart of IHPN’s mission. We hold many face-to-face meetings as well as hybrid and virtual meetings to enable peer-to-peer engagement.
Our members recognise that the most effective value comes from participating in forums and groups relevant to the services they provide, starting with those listed below.
Chief Nursing &
Medical Officer
(CNO/CMO) calls
A confidential forum for CNO/CMO’s to discuss implementation of key policy changes and national clinical guidance, offer peer support and provides an opportunity to connect with the National Medical Director and Chief Nursing Officer England and CQC.
Clinical
Forum
The clinical forum keep members connected on the latest information relating to regulation, patient safety and quality with access to great speakers who build our focus on patient safety and quality assurance.
Communications Leads Group
Health news is at the heart of our industry monitoring but is also a way for us to unite in our response as a sector. This group brings together the communication leads and helps to create content that best represents what we do.
Community Services Group
As more NHS funded care is delivered in community settings, the community services group brings together leaders from across our network to discuss developments such as the introduction of Virtual Wards and intermediate care.
Diagnostics Group
During Covid the independent sector conducted 500,000 diagnostics test and continues to play a significant role in integrated care. This group remains on the pulse of latest changes in the sector.
Diagnostic & Imaging Group (clinical)
For clinical Diagnostic & Imaging leads, this forum shares best practice within the sector and provides a platform for members and speakers to engage in improvement of patient safety and regulation.
Digital Leaders Group
Bringing together senior digital and information leads to learn about and inform national policy on digital and information governance matters, share best practice, and ensure that the sector is at the forefront of digitally-enabled healthcare.
Finance Forum
The finance forum meet to discuss issues/concerns relating to the financial relationship with the NHS, as well as considering the wider environment of private medical insurance and self-pay provision.
HR Forum
The HR forum looks at workforce challenges, bringing together the HR leaders from across our network to discuss workforce challenges, education, training and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The forum is also an opportunity to hear from policy and subject matter experts.
Hospital Sector Group
A large proportion of the work carried out by IHPN is focused on our members with hospitals. This group is designed to bring those members together and understand their unique challenges.
Insourcing Group
This group focuses on IHPN members who are involved in supporting the NHS through insourcing solutions. The group aims to relay common issues found and identifies approaches to maximise insourcing capability for UK healthcare.
IPC Leads
The IPC forum is an effective enabler towards integration of NHS and independent healthcare sector IPC systems to support and improve patient safety and quality care. The forum also allows IPC organisational Leads to network and share best practice.
Net Zero
Group
IHPN and its members set out a voluntary commitment for the independent healthcare sector to be Net Zero by 2035. This group brings in leaders and experts to help our members achieve steps to this goal.
Ophthalmology
Group
With a growing number of members dedicated to ophthalmology, IHPN have recently established a group to discuss the services and support to the 600,000 eye-care patient backlog in the NHS.
Pharmacy & Medication Safety Forum
This forum is aimed at Pharmacy professionals with organisational leadership. The forum identifies common issues and invites external speakers to discuss safety updates and policies relevant to pharmacies and medication.
Primary Care (NHS) Group
With their unique setting as the first port of call for healthcare alongside the NHS, this group brings together members who deliver NHS primary care services to build better working relationships.
Primary Care (Private) Group
This group brings together members who deliver primary care services to private and self-pay patients.
For more information on any of our forums and groups, please email [email protected].
From time to time, it is necessary to establish new working groups such as Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) to focus on national patient safety and regulatory policy that impact independent healthcare. Typically, these will be driven by the work of an already existing forum. Should you wish to learn about any additional groups that may be relevant to you please contact your respective forum lead or email [email protected].