A not-for-profit UK health mutual founded in 1905 that offers private healthcare and runs a hospital in Kent, headquartered in York.
Benenden Health is a UK mutual that provides private healthcare. It offers personal and business healthcare cover, health assessments and at-home test kits, health cash plans, and travel and home insurance. Members can also use self-pay treatments at Benenden Hospital in Kent. A health cash plan pays back part of everyday health costs such as dental or optical care, while private healthcare cover helps pay for treatment. Benenden also offers health assessments, at-home test kits and health articles through its Be Healthy pages, so its work covers prevention as well as treatment.
Its tagline is "Here for our members, not profit", and its vision is to be the UK's leading healthcare community and ease pressure on the NHS. As a mutual with no shareholders, it says it reinvests surplus income into its services. Its board must make decisions in members' best interests. These are the society's own statements. Its governance is distinctive: the board has six independent non-executive directors including the chairman, six branch-nominated non-executive directors, and two executive directors who are senior employees. Any change to the rulebook must be agreed by members at the Annual Conference. Benenden says personal private healthcare starts from £15.85 per person per month and business healthcare from £15.50 per employee per month, according to its site.
Benenden began in 1905 to help low-paid Post Office workers pay for tuberculosis treatment, an idea proposed by a Post Office clerk, Charles Garland. Wikipedia says it was formerly the Post Office and Civil Service Sanatorium Society, moved its registered office to York in 1990, opened membership to everyone in 2012 and became Benenden Health in 2018.
Wikipedia lists more than 400 employees and over 870,000 members, with Tom Woolgrove as chief executive since October 2024, though these figures may be out of date. Benenden Hospital in Kent opened in 1907 as a sanatorium and now treats NHS-referred, insured and self-paying patients, with the Care Quality Commission having rated it outstanding in 2017. The hospital is one of 26 in its network.
Members can vote at the AGM, join events, use the online community and give feedback through a member forum. In York, Benenden has sponsored York Pride since 2012. Roles include customer care, claims, health and clinical staff, marketing, finance and technology. The Benenden story runs through several names: Post Office and Civil Service Sanatorium Society, renamed in 1923 as membership widened, Benenden Healthcare Society in 2010 and Benenden Health in 2018. The Kent hospital's activity is about 22% NHS-commissioned, mainly adult orthopaedic, gynaecology and ophthalmology surgery, according to Wikipedia. Wikipedia also records past recognition from Moneywise, The Sunday Times and Moneyfacts, and sponsorship of York City Football Club from 2012 to 2019.
Website: www.benenden.co.uk
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