Expanding medical centre signs joint venture with national pharmacy

A Warwickshire medical centre has expanded its primary care provision for its growing community by creating a joint venture with a multi-national pharmacy company.

In a deal led by the corporate and commercial team at Lodders Solicitors, Wellesbourne’s Hastings House Medical Practice has purchased a half share of the pharmacy business and taken on leases for the pharmacy premises and adjoining GP surgery, in the neighbouring village of Kineton.

Lodders has worked with the practice’s medical team for several years, and the joint venture is the latest in a number of deals completed by the firm for Wellesbourne Medical Centre in recent years.

In 2018, Lodders’ real estate practice handled the land acquisition deal for the medical centre.

The firm’s team was led by Paul Mourton and Constantine Berry who worked with Hastings House’s healthcare practitioners in a complex transaction that paved the way for the new £4m medical centre, which has 24 clinical rooms and opened last year.

The firm has also created the centre’s partnership agreements.

Working on this latest joint venture deal was a team from Lodders’ corporate and commercial practice, including associate Leanne Lawrence, a specialist in mergers and acquisitions, company and business sales, partnership and shareholders agreements.

She said: “The joint venture means Hastings House Medical Centre has now further enhanced and expanded its primary healthcare provision for the local Warwickshire community to include the on-site pharmacy and GP practice in Kineton.

“Joining forces with a multi-national pharmacy company is a significant step for the practice and its medical teams, not least as it enables an even more comprehensive one-stop GP practice for the local community and its’ circa 13,000 patients, as well as business potential to cross-refer work.”

Kim Klahn, partner and head of the team in Stratford upon Avon, adds: “This is a great example of where a joint venture can enable different businesses to collaborate, and for Hastings to create a combined offering to patients. In order to ensure all planning issues were addressed and the IT infrastructure implementation was robust, we worked with the centre’s team and third parties for 18-months until completion.”

Senior GP partner of Hastings Medical Centre’s Dr Martin Read-Jones, said: “This is a significant development and step for Hastings House that delivers even more pharmacy services for our patients and community. The collaboration is already working very well.”