Orchard Care Care homes UK

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I provide care to two of these homes and in the last 12 months I have found myself being "taxed" by 10% to cover their finance and payment costs.

Aside from the appropriateness of this taxation is the fact that they are unwilling to pay us all the same rate.

I do of course have no idea how much we are all being paid per patient, but I think we should be considering all putting in a similar bid for obvious reasons.

I, for one, am invoicing them at £10 per patient. This is of course well below my normal rate due to the type of work and the efficiency of the work system provided.

 

Leaving aside the appropriateness of your current fees, and the difficulty of assessing precisely how the system works - are you self employed, an employee, a contractor etc., the answer to your problem is quite simple. If they are charging you 10% of gross, then put your fees up by 20% of gross. Then you have not only covered your fees but increased your income by 10%.

Price fixing, is of course, illegal.

Hope this helps

Bill Liggins

 

esky365,
If you are charging £10.00 a patient then quite frankly you are nuts.

It is practitioners like yourself who accept appallingly low fees that cause the podiatry profession to be disrespected.

You need to put your prices up to a professional level, and pretty quickly too.

regards

Catfoot

 

Catfoot,

Unfortunately, some practitioners have this misconception that the residents in these homes simply can't afford a normal fee and are soft on them. Unfortunately, these homes also just want the cheapest person, they don't care about quality.

 

Dear Esky,

WOW a new income stream for the home. Take 10% of earnings of the people who provide a service to the residents.

You had better tell RYAN AIR as i believe even they have not come up with this one.

I wonder if it is legal!

You need to charge an hourly rate plus travelling and set up costs and charge for dressings etc over and above normal.

Also how do you dispose of clinical waste.

Your fee structure is VERY LOW, and i would suggest that your Accountant would ask why you pay to go to work.

You are a Health Care Professional so charge accordingly. You are also not a CHARITY.

If they charge you, charge them back and increase the charge by 100%.

Bill has offered some good advice, and CATFOOT makes a pertinent observation.

If you do not need the revenue from this HOME i would withdraw immediately unless they will pay your massively revised fee structure.

Just remember that at 10 quid you will still go to court to justify your conduct, SO YOU MUST CHARGE A PROFESSIONAL FEE.

You i presume are running a BUSINESS:deadhorse:

Not a CHARITY :bash:

Oh and remember directors of charities earn about 100k

Good luck

David

 

"“Your fee structure is VERY LOW, and i would suggest that your Accountant would ask why you pay to go to work.” Excellent sarcastic comment!

“You are a Health Care Professional so charge accordingly. You are also not a CHARITY.” True!

“Just remember that at 10 quid you will still go to court to justify your conduct, SO YOU MUST CHARGE A PROFESSIONAL FEE.”

I remember at a conference, an HPC partner telling me that someone was reprimanded by the HPC for “incomplete treatment.” The registrant said, “I only charge £15.” The HPC’s reaction to that was, “you do a complete professional job, WHATEVER the fee.”

Is a plumber/electrician/dentist going to charge you a very low fee. No! They are going to charge you a professional fee!

I used to do nursing homes and I hated them. Treated as a dog’ s body by management. Ungrateful customers. I was not sorry to say goodbye to them at £8 per person. They ran me!

My worst memory was having to do a new patient (in a care home) who had severe OX nails, and a septic corn at breakdown stage, including having to write a letter to the GP for £8. And that included travelling to the home. Having heard legal advice from a lawyer 3 years ago, I should have refused to treat them unless I was paid £40. If they can’t afford it, then that is their problem. The care home management has the responsibility to find someone to work themselves for a pathetic fee, together with the risk you are taking on if things go wrong medico-legally.

I was treating a patient at Scholl was worked as a carer in a care home. He had paid the care home chiropodist £8 for treatment. After I treated him, he described the £8 as being nothing short of a complete and utter waste of money, thinking that the £28 with Scholl was worth every penny.

My cousin’s next door neighbour is a tradesman. He quoted someone for a job after spending 2 evenings pricing up. Upon showing the couple his very reasonable quote, they started to quibble bits of it, asking to discount to be taken off here and there. He cut his losses, told them he did not want anything to do with it, and walked out.

Remember, low prices appeal to the mean and ungrateful!

 

All,
Let's get this into perspective.

Someone I know had a kitchen refitted. The electrician came and sized up the job.
He returned and spent one day (7 hours) doing the work, which included chipping out 2 conduits and replastering, about 8 new sockets for appliances etc., an aerial socket for the TV, and 2 undercupboard lights. He then made a return journey to fit 6 plinth lights, which were little pop-in things.

The bill was £800.00 plus VAT.

So let's get real here, folks. Are we professionals or not?

Catfoot

 

DP

!

Now that is a quote to remember, like it

Dave

 

As has been discussed ad nauseum on every forum I have ever been on even before the advent of the internet, these prices reflect the norm locally.

When I was asked if I wanted to take on this particular home I was told the rate was actually £8, I responded as you may guess. I also know the others locally are charging £8 as i know many of them.

If I have to garner respect from my prices I would prefer not to bother. I have a long NHS career behind me and I am well aware of how obsessed many of us are with "being respected" and the ways and means of doing it.

Respect should be sought for the individual not the price tag, not the white coat, not the letters after your name, and nor in all honesty, the letters before your name.

Still why respond to an OP when we can blether off the topic about petty perceived agrievances like a lack of respect caused by the wrong price tag.

If you have anything to add to the OP I would like to hear it, but the "lack of respect" debate is tedious and could perhaps be left for a thread seeking discussion on it.

This thread does not need it, thank you.

 

I DID (emphasis not shouting) reply to your OP. and you made no response to me. However, if you do not desire respondents to comment on your fee structure, then why declare it in the first place?

I think an alternative piece of good advice - with which I imagine most respondents would empathise - would be to immediately stop providing the service.

With all due respect

Bill Liggins

 

Hi Bill

I do apologise for my thoughtless omission. I did read your post and my initial thoughts were that the comment on price fixing was entirely appropriate and how could I have forgotten that? I thought your other point was also worthy.

My lack of response was purely due to my frustration at the other posts.

I am a great believer in the use of forums. On other forums I have often been stunned at the depth of empathy and support for an individual that can come from all around the world, to say nothing of the amount and spread of knowledge that can be freely handed around for the betterment of individuals.

As a rule I love forums and spend more time on them than any other type of site.