The new buzzword in the NHS is
"Medical Chambers". In basic terms, NHS
consultants or entire hospital departments can now set up their own private business
and then give back the full range of elective and emergency care - including junior
doctor training - to the NHS.
The NHS benefits from reduced
costs, increased quality and safeguarding of time-honoured values, while the patient
benefits from improved personal and continuous care in more local settings, free
at the point of delivery. Doctors themselves benefit by achieving the professional
and financial autonomy they have worked towards throughout their medical careers.
It sounds like a win-win situation, but few have done anything about it until now.
Why? Because despite the obvious benefits, setting up a full-service Chambers has
simply been too complex and costly for individuals to tackle. This is where Meridian
Clinical comes in, taking the risk and worry of setting up away from consultants
by providing them with all of the necessary tools, together with the legal and operational
structures that make Chambers practical.
And this is also where Lighthouse comes in, commissioned to develop Meridian's corporate
identity and brand architecture in order to create a lasting impression on the two
connected, yet different, stakeholders: the consultants, who would be running their
own business through the Chambers model, and the Commissioners, who would purchase
the service from the individual Chambers.
Launched earlier this year, the corporate identity portrays a message of optimism
via the emerging flower-like petals combined with a central core (the Meridian)
which gives stability and a set of integral values common to the two main stakeholders.
The brand architecture also includes a second tier, which provides an identity and
mark of excellence for each of the consultant Chambers, reflecting the rigorous
checks and balances in place to ensure that the Chambers operate ethically and effectively.
Dr. Robert Findlay, MD of Meridian,
says: "We are an innovative company and the new corporate identity has helped us
lead the way in this new field. It has quickly become a marque of excellence amongst
our first wave of Chambers."
Lighthouse have been retained by Meridian Clinical to design and produce ongoing
marketing and communications material, both on and offline.