NHS shake-up offers 'huge opportunity' for Emis group

Emis Web will connect GPs with other NHS professionals by enabling secure and shared access to patients' electronic records.

The aim is for staff – from chiropodists to neurosurgeons – to have access to patients' medical histories at the click of a button, allowing them to make faster and better-informed decisions.

However, shares in the group yesterday fell 10.6 per cent to close down 37.5p at 315p after the group undershot City revenue expectations. Sales for the six months to the end of June were roughly flat at 29.02m, which Emis blamed on customers' lower discretionary spend on hardware and engineering.

The stock market debutant, which floated on AIM in March, has been focusing on Emis Web, which it aims to launch in the autumn.

The first GP practice to use Emis Web went live in May. Chief executive Sean Riddell described this as a "significant milestone". It has since been rolled out at four GP sites in England.

The software has also been through a rigorous testing process, which involved running about 17,000 test scenarios.

Leeds-based Emis is also preparing GPs for the software roll-out with a familiarisation service which it hopes will smooth the migration to its system and reduce training requirements.

The group also believes changes to the NHS could provide opportunities. A recently-published NHS White Paper proposed that responsibility for decision-making and commissioning of NHS services should be put in the hands of GPs.

"Healthcare professionals' ongoing requirement to securely share patient data in a time efficient, cost-effective manner is fundamental to improving NHS frontline services," said Mr Riddell.

Emis believes a more plural IT system will be based on compatibility between different IT systems. Last month it signed a 50:50 joint venture to share patient data with healthcare data company INPS. It believes Healthcare Gateway could increase efficiency in the NHS as well as patient care.

"Emis Web is already at the heart of the transformational change being implemented by current GP commissioning groups," it said.

Analyst Roger Phillips at house broker Evolution Securities said: "Emis Web is central to the recent Government White Paper on the NHS... and represents a huge opportunity from 2011 and beyond."

He said while revenues were "implicitly below expectation", "the fundamental tenets of the story are unchanged". He kept the broker's profits estimate unchanged but reduced its full-year revenue forecast by six per cent to 58.6m.

Emis is also weighing up what to do with its Canadian operation, which "has not made the progress expected". Accounting for less than one per cent of revenues in 2009, it is under strategic review.

"Emis continues to trade in line with management expectations and the group remains well-placed to benefit from the anticipated changes in the NHS," said Mr Riddell.

"We remain on track with our strategy of delivering cross-organisational healthcare systems through the implementation of Emis Web and the formation of Healthcare Gateway."

The group added it has generated 16.8m cash against bank debt of 6.4m.

PRESCRIPTION FOR CHANGE

The Government's new White Paper on the NHS will see England's 29,000 family doctors take charge of the lion's share of its 110bn budget in a radical shake-up of the state-funded service.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley unveiled a White Paper setting out the coalition Government's legislative proposals for the health service in England.

At present, managers in 151 local health authorities, known as primary care trusts, are responsible for 80 per cent of the NHS budget, paying for GPs and dentists and the cost of treatment at hospitals and clinics.

But Mr Lansley says this is an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy that prevents patients getting the best care. By putting GPs, grouped in around 500 consortia, in charge of the PCT budgets, he hopes to improve patient outcomes and save money.