People, Process, Patients: Building a CBMP Company that Scales Responsibly

Dr Sue Clenton, Medical Director of Releaf cannabis clinic explains what it takes to go from a few hundred to thousands of patients, without compromising on the quality of care. 

When people talk about growth in healthcare, the conversation often centres on numbers – the number of patients, clinics, and prescribers. But from my perspective as Medical Director at Releaf, growth is not about numbers, it’s about people, processes, and above all, patients.

I’ve watched our clinic grow rapidly over the last few years, from serving hundreds of patients to thousands. The pressure to expand quickly is always there, but we’ve learned that the only way to scale responsibly is to be deliberate about how we recruit, train and support our teams.

A rapidly expanding clinic needs a fast-growing workforce, but there are no shortcuts in this area, and we don’t believe in mass recruitment to fill the gaps. Every clinician we recruit, whether a GP, consultant or nurse, must already hold the appropriate professional qualifications. They are subject to an extensive interview process during which their skills, views and attitudes are all assessed. 

One thing I feel strongly about is that lack of prior cannabis experience is not a barrier. We don’t expect clinicians to walk through the door as cannabis experts. We trust our in-house training programme to equip them with that knowledge. For example, this includes medical training in the difference between indica and sativa strains, or understanding the terpene content of the medical cannabis strains in our formulary. What we do look for is the right mindset, and for clinicians who are open, committed and ready to put patients first.

Once they are offered a role we have a thorough process in place to carry out compliance checks, including GMC qualifications and DBS paperwork, and obtain references to ensure the best possible candidates are employed. 

Then, the training begins. All of our recruits receive bespoke training in cannabis medicines, followed by training in our systems and processes. All new recruits have the opportunity to shadow live clinics and MDT meetings to see first-hand what we do. 

Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know until you start seeing patients. That’s why we provide live support into our online systems, so clinicians can reach out for help in real-time during clinics. We also offer extra training sessions with our admin and clinical staff whenever they feel they need them. 

We’re currently working on introducing a buddy or mentor system to give each new starter a dedicated support point, and in the meantime, our MDT meetings provide clinicians with an opportunity to discuss any patients or concerns with their colleagues. 

One of the hardest lessons of growth is recognising that what worked for a small clinic won’t always work as you scale. You need to add more layers to obtain the same level of oversight that you had in the early days.

That’s why we’ve recently introduced a Clinical Director role to facilitate clinic development and improve processes, with further deputy positions planned to improve structure, support and overall organisation within the company.

We also have dedicated leads for training, continued professional development (CPD), and incident management. These are an important part of building the support structures we need to keep patients safe and clinicians supported.

For me, scaling responsibly is about more than numbers. It’s about investing in people, embedding strong processes, and not losing sight of the patients at the heart of the clinic.

By constantly reviewing our structure, processes and procedures, we remain committed to excellent patient experiences and outcomes, as well as being a safe, well-supported place to work

That is the only way to build a clinic and a sector that lasts.