Virgin Care services are funded by the NHS and are free to anyone who needs them, but we take a fresh approach to improving service delivery. Just because NHS services are universally available doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t receive an outstanding service.

Virgin Care services:

•	Walk-in and urgent care centres for when you need to see a doctor or nurse now, but do not need emergency care in A&E
•	Community-based services, such as sexual health services
•	Community diagnostics, such as ultrasound services, which are quick and easy to access through your GP and are based in a location close to where you live or work
•	GP practices where the appointment times are designed around real people’s lives and needs

Specialist services, such as GP services for asylum seekers and homeless people, so that people who need it most get a coordinated approach to their care.

To learn a bit more about them please visit:  www.virgincare.co.uk 

A unique approach
 
Virgin Care believes that by championing the communities they serve and by listening and responding to patients they can provide fantastic health services – good enough for their own families. Virgin Care’s current focus in partnership with Virgin Unite is to support and raise the profile of carers.



A carer is someone of any age who provides unpaid support to family or friends who could not manage without this help due to illness, disability, mental ill-health or a substance misuse problem (Carers UK). They want this issue to be embedded into the DNA of their business and their brand.
 
Virgin Care is putting care at the heart of the community to create a social and business impact; just because it’s good for society doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be good for business too.
 
What do they support?

•	Carers
	“Time to care” is Virgin Care’s social and community initiative. Even though three in five people in the UK will become a carer at some point in their life, carers get a raw deal from the NHS. It needn’t be like this. Carers save the NHS around £113 billion every year and Virgin Care believes carers are the unsung heroes of the NHS. GPs area key ongoing touch point for carers and Virgin Care’s staff are dedicated to improving the quality of life of carers, and those that they care for, as part of their commitment to sustainable communities. To do this, Virgin Care is partnering with local organisations and social care to champion the cause of carers.
•	Working with young people
	Virgin Care wants to learn more about what communities need and how they want their services delivered. In particular they believe the health sector is behind other industries in connecting with young people and are working with young people to find out how they access GP practices in order to improve this. Young people are both patients and also carers, and by working in partnership with young people Virgin Care believes it can better design their services to meet their specific needs. In this way they can begin to have a conversation with people who really need to access care and who currently aren’t.

Impact?

•	Carers
	“Time to care” is a new initiative at Virgin Care, and their goals are to: • Raise awareness and profile of the carer agenda • Support and listen to carers • Help give carers a voice • Create a community and network for carers The initiative begins inside Virgin Care with carer awareness training and development over and above what they would usually get in the NHS. It’s about making staff proud to work for Virgin Care and they are encouraging all of their staff to take two days to ‘Give time to care’. Staff can use this time in a flexible way to develop services and drive innovation, differentiation and excellence in a way that is responsive to the needs of carers.
•	Working with young people
	The workshops with young people are also a new initiative at Virgin Care. Virgin Care will use insights gathered at the workshops to design youth-friendly initiatives ranging from promotion of services and the physical layout of their GP practices to staff training to help them effectively interact with young people. As a result, Virgin Care hopes that young people will receive a more appropriate experience that ultimately leads to better health and wellbeing for young people.

Here’s what they are saying:

Jess Eagar, Brand Manager, Virgin Care, said:

“The Business Action team is totally amazing. Together we’ve designed a business focussed initiative to champion and give back to both our people and our communities. It’s core to our brand (it was highlighted in our most recent bid as being one of the key strengths and differentiators of our submission). It will really impact on how we deliver services.”
 
Doris Amankwaah, Kids Company, said:
 
“You were all great at making the young people feel like you were listening to them and that their insight was valuable to your organisation, which really did empower them.”
 
For more info on Virgin Care, please email:

Jess.Eagar@virgincare.co.uk