EMIS well-placed for NHS shake-up

EMIS Group, the AIM-listed supplier of software to GPs and pharmacies, has revealed that trading for the half-year ended June 30th has been slightly ahead of expectations.

The firm also said that its Chief Financial Officer Phillip Woodrow would be retiring and will be succeeded by Peter Southby, who will join the group from ENER-G (where he is the Finance Director) no later than mid-November.

Meanwhile, the roll-out of EMIS Web, "the next generation of clinical software systems", accelerated during the first half with a total of 747 live EMIS Web GP practices, 121 of which were installed in June. There were also 1,385 unfulfilled orders for EMIS Web GP and 2,753 GP practices in the Familiarisation Service.

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The company is ramping up the roll-out and will have the capacity of up to around 200 EMIS Web practices per month by September.

EMIS said its EMIS Web product is a key element of connecting and integrating NHS systems and claims to be an "integral part" of what the Department of Health recently described as 'one of the most successfully an universally computerised primary care systems in the world'.

"The directors therefore firmly believe that the group is well placed to benefit from these opportunities within the NHS," EMIS said.

"The directors welcome the NHS's continuing drive to put responsibility for decision-making and commissioning of services in the hands of GPs and other clinicians, with the centre 'getting out of the way' allowing information to be used to drive integrated care across the entire health and social care sector."

The UK market share remains strong with 52.2% of GP practices having an EMIS Group system and 36% of high street pharmacies having an RX Systems application.

The firm had net cash of £17.7m at June 30th, up from £12.8m the year before.

Chief Executive Sean Riddell said: "So far 2012 has been another busy year for EMIS Group. We have accelerated the roll-out to GPs of EMIS Web, our transformational healthcare system, whilst RX Systems continues to grow its market share. The outlook for the remainder of the financial year is encouraging and we continue to be positive about the group's prospects."

BC