£13m profits tonic for NHS partner

ONE of the NHS’s biggest partners has had a healthy rise in sales and profits.

Healthcare at Home, which supplies drugs and provides care for patients at home, saw revenues rise 5 per cent to £1.82billion in the year to October 2018.

The company, owned by private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, saw pretax profits leap 56 per cent to £12.9million as it cut administrative costs.

Founded in 1992, the company employs 1,300 people and treated 177,000 patients in 2018. Based in Burton-on-Trent, it operates in the UK, but also in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Last year it hired Darryn Gibson, former chief operating officer of outsourcer Mitie, as chief executive.

Healthcare at Home is investing heavily in its digital service to make it easier for patients to order medicines online.

It said most of the costs for that will hit next year’s results.