Healthcare services provider Connect Health says it has been successful in winning new NHS contracts but has suffered difficulties posed by the pandemic.
The Newcastle-based firm, which employs about 700 people across the country and specialises in occupational health, physiotherapy and rheumatology among other services, filed accounts for the year to the end of June 2022 in which it says it had to adjust to Covid's impact on patient attendance and the availability of clinicians. Connect reported a rise in revenue from £35.9m to £37.9m on the back of successful tenders for NHS community services and retention of existing clients.
Despite the gains, the knock-on affects of Covid meant the company's cost of sales increased. And together with investment in administrative support functions and exceptional costs of £2.3m - including £1.6m of redundancy costs and £432,000 one-off project costs - the firm made a pre-tax loss of £437,000 compared with a pre-tax profit of £1.9m in 2021. Gross profits increased 1.4% to £18.9m.
Read more: Canford Audio buoyed by return of live events as turnover bounces back
With head offices at Quorum Business Park, Connect Health operates across the country provides a range of healthcare services covering mental health, musculoskeletal and chronic pain conditions. The business says it serves more than 350,000 NHS patients every year across 28 NHS clinical commissioning groups and trusts. Last month Connect said it was creating 30 graduate jobs.
In the 2022 accounts, the firm set out the opportunity in both NHS work and also the occupational health market, where it says 30m working days are lost to musculoskeletal disorders. Connect said: "The NHS is facing continued pressure.
"There are many reasons for this, including an ageing and growing population with rising co-morbidities, challenges for primary care both financially and meeting the demand for GPs, and an increasingly challenging financial envelope. This has been exacerbated by Covid-19, which has seen a significant backlog of activity in community services during the year as a result of the impact of lockdown and has seen patients presenting with more complex conditions due to delays in referrals.
"The company believes that it has a clear opportunity to drive standards in the community sector; with a greater volume and quality of data providing detailed visibility of performance, combined with innovation in clinical delivery and support. it has developed formal partnerships with several leading universities to add independence and rigour to this process of learning, innovation and sharing."
READ NEXT:
Magnet owner Nobia restructures with closure of two factories and 92 redundancies
Greggs opens Primark café in Newcastle as latest in partnership with high street giant
Vantec hails investment in 3D immersive training tech now being exported
BBC, ITV and Channel 4 execs to speak at Newcastle creative conference
- Read more North East business news here
