Members of DFK UK & Ireland a leading association of independent accounting firms have been talking to their clients and contacts in order to understand how businesses are re purposing through the COVID-19 lock-down.

In the tenth in a series of articles, I spoke to Gus Kennedy, Managing Director of the Mayfield Clinic.

The Mayfield Clinic is a Private GP practice in Summertown Oxford which offers GP, Radiology, Nurse and Mental health clinics.

After the UK lockdown was announced by the Government, Mayfield Clinic switched all their care provision to video ‘almost overnight’. Fortunately, says Gus the NHS technology has moved rapidly in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, and they been able to use great new tools to maintain the continuity of care. There are challenges - for example how do you take blood tests or deliver immunisations remotely (answer: you can’t!) – but the overall feedback from patients has been positive.

Gus says

'We were aware of the impending crisis of Coronavirus, and saw the implications for patients and clinicians. For small healthcare businesses, Coronavirus means no face-to-face consulting and potentially a huge loss in income. For patients, it potentially puts on hold important healthcare treatment - for example, we have a number of clients delivering mental health treatment, and it isn't feasible to pause for an indefinite period. We saw the opportunity to add video functionality, and our development team did a great job to turn around the technology quickly."

Given that private healthcare is a form of discretionary expenditure, they have naturally had a quieter few weeks however a patients are still relying on Mayfield for their care. They have found

video consulting is different to face-to-face, but the caring way the Mayfield’s carefully selected practitioners look after patients is the same.

From a marketing perspective, they have always focused on their digital presence, and COVID-19 has served to add impetus to this. With phone answering a bit trickier, they have doubled-down on their website, making it easier to navigate and book appointments. They have continued with digital advertising and maintained presence on LinkedIn.

They have also launched a corporate health proposition to help existing businesses and their employees flourish at this time. Getting healthcare appointments is challenging generally, and even harder now – COVID-19 should not be a reason to put off health concerns, and so Mayfield are offering corporates a scheme that provides their employees with a number of annual video consultations as well as reduced rates on face-to-face care when it returns.

Gus’s tip to business owners surviving lockdown is

“Small business owners affected by this crisis need to pull together. We have great links with a number of local healthcare businesses, and together we are discussing how we can handle the challenges of this time and seize the potential opportunities. I’m keen to avoid closing our wallets entirely – we know that spending on IT support or web design is supporting our local business colleagues, and so where feasible we are trying to do that”