Michael Rourke

Michael has a wide range of experience in advising clients operating across the health and social care sectors on matters such as governance, regulation and commercial law.

Contract & procurement

Michael advises on all aspects of NHS contracting arrangements, especially on the use, and misuse, of the NHS standard clinical contract and the “standard” contracts for the provision of goods and services.  

Michael has worked closely with his procurement colleagues on the award of lead provider and sub-contractor arrangements in integrated care arrangements. 

Michael has regularly presented on topics from contracting issues to the integration of health and social care. He is advising on proposed alliances and partnerships across different health economies.

Service changes/reconfigurations and alliances

Allied to his work on contractual arrangements, Michael advises integrated care systems and NHS trusts on service reconfigurations, decommissioning and changes to services. In particular, Michael advises clients on all aspects of statutory and common law duties of consultation, including on consultation processes and challenges to decisions brought by way of judicial review.

Michael has advised on numerous business transfer agreements and associated service level agreements between NHS bodies as a result of services moving between providers. 

Governance

Michael advises on a range of difficult governance and constitutional issues such as:

• amendments to constitutional documents, schemes of delegation and related policies- including compatibility with statutory requirements
• the relations and powers of the constituent parts of the statutory bodies, such as advising on the difference in role and responsibility of governors and board members at a foundation trust

Digital Health & Health Start Ups

Michael advises healthcare start-ups on general commercial matters ranging from their contracts with patients, regulatory concerns over CQC registration and issues such as contracting with NHS bodies.   

In an increasingly digital world healthcare is increasing provided through online platforms and services. The range of clients in the digital health market spans private companies and NHS GPs to those seeking to derive healthcare solutions from patient data. Michael is part of the Hempsons team that advises on information governance and GDPR issues arising from the use of or sharing of health data, and so is able to provide a wide range of commercial and related data law advice to this sector.