ePolitix.com talks to Des Benjamin of Simplyhealth about its perspective on healthcare in Britain.

Question: Can you tell me about the work of Simplyhealth?

Des Benjamin: The work of Simplyhealth is quite simply really; we help people feel better through healthcare.

Simplyhealth acknowledges that this means different things for different people. The important thing about Simplyhealth is that we are not judgemental about the things people decide will make them feel better.

If people believe in homeopathy we support that, likewise, if people believe in conventional medicine we support that also. We try to help them get to the right place and make the right choices about their own healthcare.

Question: How and where does your organisation sit within the current healthcare system?

Des Benjamin: I think we sit alongside the NHS.  I don’t see any conflict between us - we complement the NHS in many ways and naturally, there are a number of areas in which we also compete. 

There is no harm in that at all, as there are a number of things in healthcare that the NHS does not particularly focus on, such as complementary and alternative medicine, plus dental and optics, so we provide support in those areas.

We support private companies and individuals with occupational health, which is an area not actively covered by the NHS and we have a screening business to help people in the workplace have an affordable health screen.

This all helps towards keeping a healthy workforce going. What we hope is that this screening process will help pick up, via signals, some potential areas of difficulty.

This, in turn, helps the NHS to identify health issues before they become more major issues. This helps the NHS to be more cost effective.

Question: How do you see this changing given the current healthcare climate?

Des Benjamin: I don’t think it will. I think the NHS will become better defined in what it does. It will excel in some territories and it will abandon others.

I think this is natural because it can’t do everything.

When the NHS was first set up it was intended to help physical wellbeing. I think a lot of the issues today are not just about physical wellbeing but also mental wellbeing.

For example, there is something like three million mental health interactions in primary care.  This means five to seven percent of the population is being treated for stress and depression and the NHS cannot handle that all on its own.

If we can help workforces with these two issues, through either screening, occupational health, counselling, help lines or other mechanisms, then we can share some of the burden of the country’s single biggest primary care intervention and I think that is very useful.

The most important thing is that the NHS continues and we keep its inclusive nature, which means that everyone has access.  Of this, I have no doubt and I will use every ounce of my effort to keep it this way.

We are very lucky to have this as a foundation principle and we must keep it.

Now, having said that, who provides help once access is sorted, is not the most important issue. 

I think we are heading for a more mixed economy and there will be sectors in which it is appropriate for a strong mutual to lend its skills into the health system that emerges out of the health service.

Simplyhealth will be looking to play a broader role to help this health system as it emerges over the next 20 years.

Question: How closely do you work with government?

Des Benjamin: Not closely enough. I think we are becoming more engaged and this is very important to us.

What we have on offer is, I believe, very important. We are mutual so there is no leakage of shareholder premium; we are heavily regulated and consistently told that we are among the best-governed organisations with really robust systems and procedures.

Plus, we are financially sound and are capable of handling large volumes - those are our attributes.

If you add one more, it is that for the last five consecutive years we have been a Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For. 

We are pretty good in terms of the way employees are engaged within the business and able to make a contribution to the growth of Simplyhealth.

We therefore have a formula, which is really interesting for both the NHS and the government.

We believe these credentials, which are led by putting the customer first, are embedded within the fact that we are a mutual organisation.

The part of Simplyhealth’s work which I find rather lovely, and it’s the part that gets me up in the morning, is that we take two-thirds of one percent of our turnover and give it to health-related charities and the third sector. This engages the public in all sorts of ways.

For example, we give money to The Princess Royal Trust for Carers and there is quite a large portfolio of charities whose job it is to help in difficult areas in society where people need an improved health outcome or an improved wellbeing.

There is a great sense that we do what we do for our customers, whilst putting a huge amount back into the community. The secondary issue underneath all of this is that we run a business and we make a profit.

We do these things well and the further work we do is a consequence of good management.

Question: What are the big challenges you face over the coming year?

Des Benjamin: I think sitting in front of the right people and having the right conversations.

Question: As group chief executive of Simplyhealth, what are your priorities for moving Simplyhealth forward?

Des Benjamin: I think we need to let people know that our organisation exits. It’s only come together as an organisation in the last three years and I think it’s only recently become fit to present itself and its credentials to the relevant authorities in healthcare.

One of my targets for 2007 is to access the relevant authorities and make them aware that we offer new capacity and a mechanism that wasn’t around three years ago, which can generally improve healthcare in the UK.

It is worth considering its usage alongside the NHS and within the health system.

Question: Bearing in mind the ePolitix parliamentarian readership, do you have any final messages for us?

Des Benjamin: The lead message from Simplyhealth is there are an awful lot of working practices within the UK in general and within healthcare that need to change to improve the wellbeing of healthcare staff.

This, in itself, will lead to a profound improvement in outcomes for patients.

Our consistent success in the Sunday Times Best 100 Companies to Work For competition provides excellent evidence that the wellbeing of staff in this organisation has a profound effect on our ability to succeed in caring for the 2.5 million customers we do.

If this was applied more generally across the healthcare industry, then I think there would be a great move towards better patient care and positive outcomes as a result.

The issue today is that people still believe it’s a process and still don’t spend enough time on the caring side, which would pay huge benefits both in cost terms and patient wellbeing terms.  

Equally important is that it would also pay huge benefits for the wellbeing of the 1.5 to two million people who work in the healthcare industry.

Simplyhealth is quite well placed to help start that debate, advise on good practice and would in fact be delighted to begin those changes in employment practices. It is not something we would want to be paid for, it is about helping the process of change.