Exclusive: Tunstall backs NHS plans with healthy diagnosis

Gil Baldwin said Tunstall had to show GPs’ consortia it could help them make early savings if they take control of £80bn of health spending after a political “listening” exercise.

Mr Baldwin, who took over last year at the firm, based in Whitley Bridge, near Selby, said: “What the Health Secretary (Andrew Lansley) is trying to do is provide local expertise and I would not disagree with it – trying to align the interests of people looking after our health with the population. Who knows our health better than our GP?”

Tunstall, which was the subject of one of the region’s largest private equity deals when it was bought for £514m by Charterhouse Capital Partners three years ago, expects to continue growing as austerity measures force the NHS and foreign health providers to cut costs.

The firm nearly doubled operating profits and increased turnover to almost £148m in the year to September 30, 2010. Coalition cuts in Yorkshire alone will come to more than £400m in the coming year with hospitals bearing the brunt of efficiency savings which are likely to lead to several thousand job losses.

Mr Baldwin said: “We have to align ourselves with the emerging GP consortia. We have to prove we are relevant to them.

“In this day and age you cannot say ‘write me a large cheque and I will save some money’ – it is inappropriate. You need to be able to prove you can do it. You need to get GP clusters or other parts of the NHS confident you can save them money or break even (initially) and then deliver savings.

“To write a large cheque over the next five years is difficult. Who the hell is going to invest money in this financial climate knowing you will get a return in 10 years?

“But the return is high. We have to shift the way the health economy is delivered from payment when sick to preventing people from becoming sick so they get the best life outcome. Money will drop out of the bottom of the system which can be put back in (as investment).”

Tunstall develops technology which allows patients to self-test their vital signs at home, without the need for a healthcare worker. The data gathered is then sent to central computers, allowing doctors to pick up on warning signs and monitor patients’ progress.

Earlier this month the firm was part of a consortium which won an £18m, six-year deal from the European Centre for Connected Health, part of the Public Health Agency of Northern Ireland.

Mr Baldwin said Tunstall had to prove to GPs, who will take control of England’s local NHS budgets, that they will save them money without a long lead-in time.

The group has a presence in 30 countries and 1,100 staff. Its largest foreign markets are Europe and Australasia but Mr Baldwin said it is monitoring developments in the US, where President Barack Obama’s plan for near-universal healthcare coverage for Americans is likely to become law despite a bitter row on Capitol Hill. Significantly, the law will also bar insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing health conditions.

“If that is the case then we would expect our solutions to become interesting to people,” Mr Baldwin said. “We will see how it goes. I don’t think the (political) fight is over yet.”

Tunstall Group Holdings made an operating profit of £21.94m for the year to September 30, up from £11.79m, as turnover rose to £147.88m from £141.76m. It narrowed the pre-tax loss to £10.24m, from £38.33m as a result of improved operating profit and foreign exchange gains on bank borrowings.

Sales up despite difficult conditions

Tunstall is expecting to grow this year although managing director Gil Baldwin did not specify its targets.

Total sales rose 4.3 per cent at Tunstall Group Holdings in the year to September 30 despite what the directors’ report described as “difficult market and economic conditions”.

The firm’s UK revenues fell seven per cent to £66.7m, which Tunstall said was caused by delayed spending decisions and uncertainty over coalition Government and the Comprehensive Spending Review.

European revenues rose to £74m, from £64.7m, however, with sales recovering in Spain and growth in telehealth from its Danish subsidiary.