patient satisfaction rating of good, very good or excellent (Patient satisfaction survey carried out by Howard Warwick & Associates, Jan - Sept 2009)
Chairman’s statement
2008/09 has been an exciting year for General Healthcare Group and a year in which much has been achieved. Over the last three years the Company has been transformed in terms of scale and quality; and financially it is well positioned to continue to take advantage of positive fundamental trends. Therefore, I am pleased to report that, against a backcloth of economic turbulence, GHG has again delivered excellent results.
During 2008/09 we continued to acquire and expand our footprint. We can now proudly say that circa 90% of the UK population live less than an hour from a BMI facility. We are only now beginning to see the real benefits of the scale and national coverage that we have created.
Our focus has been on strengthening our position as the UK’s number 1 independent health care provider whilst ensuring we deliver excellent service to our stakeholders, consultants, GPs and patients. Maintaining and extending our leading position requires us to invest in our business. During 2008/09 we invested £45m, and over the last three years we have invested circa £150 million in our existing estate and a further £150 million in new facilities.
During this year we were one of the first independent operators to publish our ‘quality accounts’ to communicate publicly our excellent patient satisfaction levels, our clinical outcomes and our rigorous management of infection control within all of our facilities.
BMI Healthcare remains committed to servicing the independent health care sector and the majority of our revenue and caseload is derived from our private patients. We have a collaborative and productive working relationship with the NHS and are pleased to work with the public sector to deliver Choose and Book services in many of our facilities, helping the NHS deliver its core business.
For the full year 2008/09 our caseload grew by 5.9% and our revenue by 7.6%. Our operating company (OpCo) delivered £220.6 million of EBITDAR and £93.9 million of EBITDA, an increase on the prior year of 8.3% and 13.3% respectively.
We strive to be the most efficient operator and we are very proud that each of our key metrics are industry leading - reflecting the hard work, dedication and experience of all our staff. On behalf of the Board and shareholders I would like to express our gratitude and praise to them.
With an ageing population we anticipate an increasing role for the independent sector. Looking forward, the company enjoys good prospects as fundamental trends are positive. General Healthcare Group is well positioned to take advantage of this.
