Can the GP’s own accountant be appointed to manage the finance of a consortium if the GP is in the management team? S Kumar, London

It is always advisable for any organisation to invite several
firms of accountants to tender for the appointment of
accountants and business advisors. A GP Consortium will need
to appoint a firm of accountants who are acquainted with
the very significant changes to the NHS arising from July's
White Paper: Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS,
and who are competent to assist the management team in
the development of the Consortium. The management team

It is always advisable for any organisation to invite several
firms of accountants to tender for the appointment of
accountants and business advisors. A GP Consortium will need
to appoint a firm of accountants who are acquainted with
the very significant changes to the NHS arising from July’s
White Paper: Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS,
and who are competent to assist the management team in
the development of the Consortium. The management team
will therefore probably want to invite three or four firms of
accountants with specialist healthcare sector knowledge to
tender for the appointment so that the most appropriate firm
providing the best value for money can be selected. It is quite
probable that one or more of the firms invited to tender will
already act as accountants to the GP practice of one of the
management team but so long as a proper tender process is
carried out then this should not give rise to any conflict of
interest for the management team member, nor for the firm
of accountants who will have been appointed by the whole
management team.