The term ‘doctors’ co-operative’ covers
organisations which range from those providing little more than the
administration of on-call rotas between neighbouring practices, to
co- operatives (particularly in big cities) that are large and have
negotiated bulk deals with commercial deputising services. Members
pay to benefit from the co-operative’s services and are
themselves paid for the work that they do for the co-operative. The
typical co-operative is owned and staffed by General Practitioner
(GP) principals. A GP using the co-operative to provide
out-of-hours cover pays a fee for the service. The doctors working
for the co- operative are most often paid a session rate, so much
per shift worked.
Local Health Authorities have allocated funds to reimburse
any non-doctor costs of a GP’s membership of a co-operative.
Such costs may, for example, include communication equipment
(pagers, telephones, fax machines, etc) premises, non-medical staff
costs and so on. Equipment costs are likely to be capital. Capital
contributions by the GP to the co- operative will not be allowable.
For administrative convenience, payment may be made direct to
the co-operative. But the reality is that the payments belong to
the individual GP who may then pay them to the co- operative
together with the balance of their contributions for the services
that they receive. In strictness the payments from the Local Health
Authority should be shown in the GP’s own (or partnership)
accounts, either as a professional receipt or netted off against
payments to the co-operative.
It is essential that you establish all of the facts before
venturing an opinion as to whether the co-operatives carries on a
trade and if such trade is a mutual trade.
