A practice in Somerset has become the first in the country to adopt a new employee ownership system circumventing difficulties in recruiting GP partners.

All employees of the Minehead Medical Centre now hold single shares in the business in an ownership model described as “John Lewis style”. The partners in the practice decided to convert to an employee owned trust, an entity created in 2014. The trust cannot be sold and employees do not have to invest any money to become shareholders. They only hold shares during their employment. The practice says it has been struggling to recruit staff, especially GPs.

GP Dr Ed Ford said: “We have a fantastic management team and wider staff team, so partners at the practice felt we should give them more control of the business. We also wanted to ensure that the business structure shouldn’t rely on individuals holding shares that could be difficult to transfer if people wanted to leave – hence the idea of becoming an employee-owned trust (EOT).
As an employee owned trust, Minehead Medical Practice is committed to continuing to drive up standards at the practice and deliver the best standard of care to our patients”.