Yorkshire group EMIS launches £200m stock market float

A YORKSHIRE healthcare IT company set up by two GPs who saw an opportunity to computerise patient records, is to float on the stock market valued at £200m.

EMIS Group, which is based in Rawdon, Leeds and employs 786 people, is to list on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to raise £50m as it looks to grow through acqusitions.

The group now holds 34m patient records on its system, representing 52% of all GP practices in the UK.

EMIS – short for Egton Medical Information Systems, was launched in 1987 in a rural practice in Egton near Whitby in North Yorkshire. Dr Peter Sowerby and Dr David Stables wrote the software with the founding principle that the systems used by GP surgeries should improve patient care, and the idea of EMIS ‘written by doctors, for doctors’ was born.

EMIS – which also has an office in Canada – made an operating profit of £15.8m on turnover of £58m in 2009, is being advised by Evolution Securities in Leeds as nominated adviser and broker.

Later this year the group will launch a major new product, EMIS Web, which it believes represents the future of healthcare software.

EMIS Web electronically connects GPs with other NHS professionals by enabling secure, shared, centrally hosted access to patients’ electronic health records held at the group’s data centres.

The group believes that the system will not just save time and money by eliminating paperwork and the re-inputting of data but also significantly reduce patient waiting times and reduce the risk of prescribing and treatment errors.

Sean Riddell, chief executive of EMIS, said: “EMIS has built a pre-eminent market position by providing simple to use, scalable data systems based on our inherent understanding of the needs of healthcare professionals.

“In the UK, we see EMIS Web as a key component in the future of NHS IT because it enables healthcare practitioners to deliver quicker, better patient care through the sharing of key patient information between different healthcare teams.

“EMIS Web is a core part of our strategy and will provide us with both organic growth and acquisition opportunities as we continue to develop its potential across the whole healthcare spectrum – including primary, secondary and community care settings.

“A flotation on AIM will position EMIS to take advantage of growth opportunities, broaden our shareholder base and further incentivise management.”

EMIS Web is currently being rolled out within NHS Primary Care and Acute Trusts at Tower Hamlets, Liverpool and Gateshead with what the group says are “compelling results”.

In Liverpool, waiting times for minor surgery have reduced from a nine month average to, in some cases, same day appointments; and at Tower Hamlets, the physiotherapy team have saved on average seven hours a week in administrative time.