GP and dental partnership deeds

The importance of a partnership deed

A partnership without a deed is the most unstable business arrangement that exists. Known as a partnership ‘at will’, it is governed by the Partnership Act 1890, which provides perilously little security for a partnership trading in the 21st century. Particularly worrying, is that a partnership may be dissolved instantly by the unilateral service of a notice by any partner. If you practise under the NHS, this will carry the additional threat of the termination of your contract with NHS England.

However, this risk can be avoided by ensuring you maintain an up to date partnership deed which, if carefully drafted, will avoid an unplanned dissolution, or the threat of your GP partnership being held to ransom by a disaffected partner. It will also establish the operational rules for your practice.

An out of date deed is as dangerous as having no deed at all! We aim to make the procedure for creating a new deed as straightforward and cost effective for you as possible.

Avoiding disputes

With the pressures facing GP and dental partnerships, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of partnership disputes we are handling. These are highly sensitive and emotive and are often devastating for a practice.

A well drafted partnership agreement prevent disputes arising in the first place and also provide a mechanism for resolving disputes should they arise.

Our extensive experience of advising on partnership disputes informs our drafting of partnership deeds and enables us to suggest options and solutions for issues which commonly cause disputes in GP and dental partnerships.

Highly experienced in GP and dental partnership matters

At Hempsons we have unrivalled experience of the issues affecting GP and dental partnerships. Our partnership deeds are designed to be comprehensive, flexible and easily updated to reflect changes in your practice.

Our process

The work we would carry out for drafting and completing a new partnership deed is summarised below.

  1. Partnership questionnaire: provide you with a questionnaire for the partners to complete.
  2. Review: review your completed questionnaire.
  3. First draft deed and report: produce a first draft partnership deed to reflect the answers to the questionnaire. This will be accompanied by a report to explain the structure and key points for consideration by the partners.
  4. Further revision: amend the first draft deed to incorporate your comments on our first draft, to produce a final draft for partner approval.
  5. Final document: produce a final version of the deed together with instructions for signature and completion of the deed.

Your GP partnership deed will be designed to fit the requirements of your practice.

You need not be concerned that the costs of our personalised procedure will make this an expensive process, as you will retain control throughout. Unless your requirements are unusually complex, we will prepare a first draft of the deed for a fixed fee based on your questionnaire responses. Our charging structure is designed to accommodate client needs and you may instruct us to provide such additional help or support as you feel you need.

Get in touch

We look forward to hearing from you. If, in the meantime, you have any further queries or would welcome the opportunity to discuss any aspect of your practice, please call us and speak to a member of our GP team.

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