Mention the Priory, and the first thing that comes to mind is drug-addled
celebrities, Philip Scott acknowledges with a wince.
Alumni who have passed through after admitting an over-fondness for the party
life include half the inhabitants of the average gossip column.
Kate, Pete, Jade, Meg ... and those are the ones we know about. Current
inhabitants, if you believe the red-tops, include Paul Gascoigne and Ronnie
Wood.
There are even suggestions that, in the stratosphere of super-celebrity, the
Priory in Roehampton is a little passé, the Marbella of the rehab circuit.
It is all a bit unfair. The much-photographed - from the outside - Roehampton
facility is only one of 53 specialist units treating those suffering from
depression, schizophrenia, degenerative or neurological problems, brain and
spinal injuries, eating disorders.
One division provides specialist education for children with learning
difficulties such as autism and Asperger's syndrome.
The vast majority of group income comes from NHS or local authority referrals,
rather than the proceeds of the catwalk or the music world, says Mr Scott,
44. “The Priory is accessible to everybody. Regardless of wealth, the Priory
can provide services at any time to any member of the public.”
Discretion is guaranteed. “I would never know who's in it. Chinese walls in
this business are very robust.”
Internally, customers are known only as Patient A, Patient B and so on. A
rather naive suggestion that his picture for this interview might be taken
at Roehampton is firmly declined.
“You can't stop photographers standing outside the hospital. We will
absolutely not permit photographers access.”
His first specialist professional qualification was as a psychiatric nurse. He
says that he was never cut out for university and his first paying job was
as a fitter.
One of his sisters was a nurse and she suggested he try it. He agreed, for
reasons that he admits are unclear. It was only ever going to be a stopgap.
“I will never forget my first day. Of the 56 in the intake, I was the only
guy.”
After three years he qualified as a nurse and embarked on another two years
training in psychiatrics, then a diploma in nursing studies at the
University of Ulster.
“I can remember even now my first experience as a psychiatric nurse, and this
old guy who was completely distraught. I can still remember the relief I was
able to bring him.”
He joined Crestacare, a private operator of homes for the elderly, and at 26
became the manager of a private home. Three years later, he moved from
Belfast to the North of England to be regional director.
Mr Scott confesses that one of the main drivers of his move from frontline
healthcare to management was the need to earn a living decent enough to
afford a family.
However, he found that he enjoyed the work. “Most CEOs in healthcare are
accountants who have bolted-on the nursery bit. I'm the reverse.”
In 2000 he joined Southern Cross, which had been founded by John Moreton, the
entrepreneur from New Zealand, and at the time had 46 care homes.
“I was managing director with an agreement with John that if he ever decided
he wanted to depart, he would give me the opportunity to launch a management
buyout.”
The opportunity duly arrived two years later and, with the help of colleagues
and private equity, Southern Cross was bought out for £82 million.
Two years after that, Blackstone, the American private equity firm, paid
almost double that for the firm. Mr Scott had put £100,000 into the original
buyout.
When Blackstone arrived, he re-invested this in the business. “I decided that
as I had never had it, I wouldn't miss it.”
Southern Cross floated in July 2006 and by December the next year, when he
left, it had 735 homes.
Since then occupancy rates have tumbled and at the end of July the company
admitted that it was unable to repay £46 million to its bankers.
The shares crashed. Southern Cross has since been thrown a lifeline by its
banks and has entered into talks to reschedule its loans.
Mr Scott admits to being saddened by events there, but says that they were a
result of a change in his policy, which was never to take properties on to
the balance sheet but always to have them held by individual landlords, with
whom the parent company shares the fee income.
This is the model he is applying at the Priory, which has embarked on a push
into care for the elderly and has signed leases on ten homes.
The introduction came through an investor in both his present employer and
Southern Cross. He had intended a less busy life and the inevitable
consultancy work.
“I got a phone call and was told, don't go on holiday for six months. Come and
see the business.”
The Priory is not without its difficulties. For a start, it is still
associated with Chai Patel, Mr Scott's controversial predecessor, who quit
early in 2007, apparently after a falling-out with the present owners, a
consortium led by ABN Amro.
Dr Patel subsequently became embroiled in Labour's loans-for-peerages scandal
after lending the party £1.5 million.
ABN Amro and the other backers bought the business in 2005 for £875 million, a
sum now accepted as being at least £100 million too high.
Debts are about £1 billion and there are suggestions that Royal Bank of
Scotland, the Dutch bank's new owner, would like shot of its, even if at a
loss.
Mr Scott plays down suggestions of an imminent deal. “I've been recruited for
two reasons: to grow the business and take it forward into additional new
business streams and to improve the performance of the existing core
business.”
Occupancy runs at about 75 per cent of the total 1,850 beds. Priory patients
tend to be admitted for acute conditions, stabilised and discharged.
They may move from one facility to another within the group: to a high
dependency unit with serious psychological or behavioural problems,
assessed, treated, then moved to a less high security area and given the
necessary medication or social skills to allow them to manage their problems
and move on.
All this means a high turnover. Mr Scott hopes to increase this occupancy rate
to 85 per cent by moving towards providing more long-term institutional care
and a supportive environment for those with long-term problems.
Meanwhile, he is offering to take NHS referrals on a fixed-price basis.
Typically, a patient is admitted and his or her fees are paid until treatment
has been successful, however long this takes. Under a fixed-price contract,
the length of treatment is assessed and the NHS trust pays for this.
If it overruns, the additional cost falls on the Priory. This, he says, should
raise occupancy levels. “Our greatest desire is to bring people in, put them
through a programme in the shortest time frame and have them discharged.”
He inherited a few other people problems. Sick leave among staff was about
twice the accepted level because of “perverse incentives” to stay off work.
“It's just not affordable, that level of absence.”
Changes he implemented, in this area and elsewhere, have not made him popular
with some members of staff.
“It's been an interesting experience, but I think we're winning hearts and
minds,” he says.
He admits to the irony of arriving at a healthcare provider to find such a
disproportionately high number of employees on the sick list.
A case of, physician, heal thyself?
CV
Born: Belfast, 1964
Education: Orangefield Primary, Belfast; Grosvenor Grammar School,
Belfast
Career: 1990-93 manager of an independent care home; 1993–98
UK managing director of Crestacare; 1998–2000 UK managing
director, Tamaris; 2000-02 Managing director, Southern Cross; 2002–07
Chief executive, Southern Cross; 2008 Chief executive, The Priory
Group
Other interests: football, running
Is Mr Scott based at the Priory?
I had to leave after a 3 month stay because my funding had ceased. I was still very unwell and at the time there was never any mention of the possibility of my treatment being funded by the NHS.If it had not been in place in May 2008 it must have been known about
Mrs Angela Taylor, Chorleywood, UK