our experience

recent examples of our primary health care work

advising on a number of doctor / partner led multi-million pound medical 'super surgeries'

Work highlights include:

• advising on five new multi-million pound medical 'super surgeries'. The developments in Luton, High Wycombe, Milton Keynes, Minster and Pinner took two years to complete and now provide state-of-the-art medical care to those areas. The team was led by Andrew Miscampbell who has particular expertise in a variety of real estate arrangements many of which are specific to GPs. For this particular client we acted for groups of GPs, some leasing premises from a developer and others developing their own surgery premises. The projects were extensive and involved negotiations with the developer, the District Valuer and the Primary Care Trusts, as well as pharmacies, dentists and complementary medicine providers to whom the GPs leased part of their premises

• advising on a £12 million pound development in the West Midlands. Two large practices joined together to develop their own state of the art medical centre. Our work included purchasing the land, dealing with the construction documentation and warranties, drafting and negotiating the bank documentation and the facility agreement, setting up the limited company to carry out the development and very specific shareholding agreements. The project was extensive and involved negotiations with the land owner for the sale of the land, the contractor on the construction documents, the lender on the form of security and the facility agreement, the Church Commissioners to release a restrictive covenant, the District Valuer on the level of the rent and their requirements, and the Primary Care Trust on their specific contractual requirements as well as the pharmacy, dentist, optician and day care nursery to whom the GPs leased part of their premises

• advising on a £7 million pound development in North West London. The development was led by three partners out of a larger practice to develop their own large scale medical centre including road and foot bridges over a river. Work included purchasing the land, dealing with the construction documentation and warranties, negotiating the bank documentation and partnership advice on the holding of the finished development. The project involved negotiations with the land owner for the sale of the land, the contractor on the construction documents, the lender on the form of security, the District Valuer on the level of the rent and their requirements, and the Primary Care Trust on their specific contractual requirements as well as the pharmacy, dentist, optician and the Primary Care Trust to whom the GPs leased part of their premises

• advising on a £6 million pound development in Bedfordshire. The development was led by a two partner practice and work included purchasing the land, dealing with the construction documentation and warranties, negotiating the bank documentation including the form of security and costs overrun guarantees and partnership advice on the holding of the finished development. As in other similar transactions, negotiations were held with all interested parties and the third party tenants who were to occupy parts of the property

• advising on a number of other recent doctor led developments in Catford, Kent and Milton Keynes and new developments underway in Birmingham and St Albans.

advising doctors on various third party developer led schemes

Work highlights include:

• advising GPs in taking premises from a third party developer. Work included liaising with the PCT and the District Valuer on the type of development and the costs and issues involved and the level of rent expected. Dealing with all issues raised by the developer and assisting the GPs with regards to the letting documentation and construction / warranty documentation

• advising a third party developer in the acquisition and letting of a development to D2 medical user care home. We dealt with negotiation on the conditional sale contract and the consequential letting to a mental health user

• we have also undertaken and completed other recent developments in Milton Keynes and Hampshire and are advising on a new development underway in Richmond.

advising developers on purchasing and constructing medical centres. Work highlights include:

• advising the developer in the acquisition and letting of their developments to a local GP practice in Crawley. We dealt with all the issues that arose out of the acquisition, development, construction and letting of bespoke surgery premises on behalf of the developer to multiple occupiers. We liaised with the District Valuer and PCT on managing their expectations, the level of rent and the construction requirements

• advising on a new development in Somerset for a developer led medical centre scheme. Again we advised the developer on the acquisition, construction and letting of their developments to a local GP practice. Advising on bank funding for the scheme and liaising with the District Valuer and Primary Care Trust as well as the third party occupiers.

advising on partnership work

We have been involved in negotiating, drafting and agreeing partnership agreements. We regular advise on associated property ownership issues, where only some of the partners own the property or where the partners do not wish to pass the property on. We have provided advice on the expulsion of partners both acting for the practice and for individual partners.

advising on the buying and selling of various medical practices

This work includes partnership agreements and shareholder agreements and dealing with the retirement of partners from partnerships without infringing the rules preventing the sale of goodwill.

other areas of expertise

This includes:

• acting for pharmacists taking leases of premises within dental practices
• advising on employment contracts for a number of GP surgeries
• acting on the disposal and acquisition of dental practices including advising on the complications arising from the effective sale of NHS contracts
• advising groups of GP practices on commercial structures to enable them to take on APMS contracts.