City briefs: Totally; Light Science Technologies
Totally, the Derby provider of frontline healthcare services, corporate fitness and wellbeing services, has been awarded a contract extension by NHS England to provide national NHS 111 contingency services for a further year.
The £13m contract, awarded to Vocare, part of Totally Urgent Care, will run for 12 months from 16 February.
NHS England originally commissioned the support to provide additional call handling and clinical capacity to help to alleviate pressures on local NHS 111 services. The original 12-month contract was announced on 16 January 2023 and was for around £10m a year. The extension increases the level of support to be provided and reflects the ongoing demand for NHS 111.
Wendy Lawrence, CEO of Totally, said: “Totally has significant experience in providing quality, resilient and responsive NHS 111 services. To date we have answered almost half a million calls as part of the NHS England’s National Resilience programme. These calls would otherwise have gone unanswered leaving those seeking to access care without the support they needed. As demand has increased, we have responded, increasing capacity to ensure that calls to NHS 111 across the country are not abandoned.
“The extension of this contract for a further year means that Totally continues to be a core partner in the delivery of NHS 111 services until February 2025.”
Light Science Technologies Holdings, the Derbyshire agritech firm, will see revenue increase by approximately 13% to around £9.25m for the 12 months to the end of November 2023, it said this morning (January 10).
In a trading update, the company said the increase was driven by growth across each of its trading divisions.
Light Science Technologies now expects to cut its losses for the full year from £2.72m in 2022 to around £1.3m this time around.
In a statement, the company said: “The core focus for the group remains on growing revenue and margin, controlling overhead costs and ultimately becoming operationally cash self-funded. LSTH has a group of businesses that is targeting large growth markets and offers near to medium and long-term opportunities.”
