Healthcare provider acquired in £11m deal
An urgent care services business with major operations in Staffordshire has been acquired by out-of-hospital services provider Totally in an £11m deal.
Vocare operates one of its six nation call centres in Staffordshire, while it also delivers operates GP Out-Of-Hours services in Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sunderland, Vale of York, Scarborough and Ryedale, North Staffordshire and Stoke, Stafford and Cannock, South Staffordshire and Seisdon Peninsular, East Staffordshire, Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset and South West London (sub-contracted to South East London Doctors).
Totally said the deal marked a transformational step for the business as it looked to become a leader of ‘Out-of-Hospital’ care in a growing UK market estimated to be worth in excess of £20bn a year.
Vocare is one of the leading providers of integrated urgent care services to the NHS throughout the UK including GP out-of-hours services, the NHS 111 service via its call centres and urgent care centres working in conjunction with NHS A&E departments. Vocare provides healthcare services to Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) covering approximately 9.2 million patients nationally.
Vocare has seen revenue grow from approximately £32.4m in the financial year ended March 2015 to approximately £76.8m in the year ended March 2017 – equivalent to 137%.
This revenue growth has been driven by the business securing substantial new contracts covering both NHS 111 services and urgent care.
Wendy Lawrence, CEO of Totally, said: “This (is) a pivotal acquisition for Totally (and) a key milestone in our buy and build strategy as we continue to act as a consolidator within the fragmented UK healthcare market and build ourselves as a leading out-of-hospital healthcare services provider.
“We believe this acquisition will add critical mass and significantly strengthen and augment our market positioning thanks to the operational and financial benefits it brings.
“Vocare is one of the leading providers of outsourced urgent care services, which is highly complementary to Totally’s business model and offers synergies with our existing businesses allowing us to further enhance and diversify our offering.”
