One Health Group plc (AQSE:OHGR) Chief Executive Officer Adam Binns caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss innovative partnerships with the NHS, its operational growth, and strategic plans for the future.
Q1: The results show a 22% increase in turnover compared to the first half of 2024, driven by NHS waiting list transfers and patient choice referrals. Could you elaborate on how One Health’s collaboration with the NHS has evolved and contributed to the growth?
A1: We’ve experienced strong double-digit growth really since the start of 2021 on the back of the pandemic as one of the key drivers for us and that can be seen clearly in interims.
I think the most important number for me and the senior team is the new patient number, which is almost 30% up half year to half year. Importantly, around 40% of those new patients will result in surgical procedures after the first consultation or follow-up. So, that gives us strong confidence in future revenue, clearly that volume of patients coming through.
You’re right, the growth is primarily around increased GP referrals. There’s more patients becoming aware of One Health Group and the high-quality service we provide and then choosing us at the GP appointment. Increasingly as well, we are supporting more local NHS trusts. This is focused around their long waiters and helps them achieve year-end targets imposed by the national government. There are clear and demanding targets for reducing waiting lists. Within that, long waiters on the waiting list are where we provide a lot of support.
I think where we make a real difference, and in many ways set ourselves apart, is the way in which our team works. We adopt a very highly collaborative, flexible approach and work hard to make the transfer process for patients on the NHS waiting list as seamless as possible. As an example of that, once the trust identifies appropriate patients for transfer out to the Group, my internal patient liaison team contacts the patient, explains their options, and informs them they can transfer from the NHS to an independent provider. The fact there’s no cost to them—it’s all free at the point of delivery, as we’re paid by the NHS—means the vast majority of patients, for the benefit of quicker treatment, do transfer out and are treated by us.
It’s a very effective way of not only treating patients faster but also helping the local NHS trusts meet their internal targets. These targets are generally cyclical. So, end of year (March 31st) is the next measure to help several locally bring those long waiters down, which is a key metric for them. In terms of the size of that activity, we’ve added another NHS trust in the two half-years comparison. We are now helping five trusts locally, and revenue from this activity represents around 8% of our total turnover. So, it’s becoming significant.
The key thing for me, and a real testament to the work the team does—which is very impressive—is that we’re getting trusts coming back to us. After we’ve dealt with a group of patients, trusts return to us two or three months later with another group based on the service they’ve received. I wouldn’t say this is long-term growth for us, but it’s certainly helping us grow in the short term. We’re also getting the opportunity to develop relationships with trusts we’ve not worked with before. Previously, all our relationships were with commissioners, which is a very different way of working. We are now developing local relationships within a 30–40-mile radius, which we think will lead to long-term activity.
Q2: With the onboarding of seven new clinicians, the expansion of average clients, and plans for new surgical hubs, what operational challenges have you faced, and how do you plan to scale further to meet the rising demand?
A2: Clearly growth always brings challenges, they are nice challenges, and I think it’s a testament to the strength of the senior team that we’ve found solutions to support growth. Clearly, we’ve upscaled the business as well. We’ve grown our employed workforce quite significantly this year. We’re hitting quite chunky numbers now in terms of employed staff, predominantly within the patient liaison team to manage those relationships.
I think, as the interims demonstrated, that very strong start to the year is a testament to managing that growth. This is all organic at the moment, although we’re nearing close strategic growth associated with surgical hubs. For now, this is ongoing work we’ve been doing for 20 years, but now on a bigger scale.
One of the key drivers of that growth, and a really good result this year, is the growth of our outreach clinic network. To remind you, the important thing about the One Health model is that we take the consultant out to the patient, we don’t expect them to come to the hospital. Currently, we have 37 outreach clinics. The consultant travels to the patient in these clinics, close to the patient’s home, so there’s not much travel involved. The vast majority of face-to-face patient interaction isn’t in big hospitals—it’s in the community. Only the 40% of cases requiring inpatient work or surgery are referred to a hospital for surgery at one of the nine independent providers we work with today.
This model, which brings care to patients in the community, is growing well geographically and is closely aligned with NHS England and government policy to take care locally. You’ve likely heard numerous announcements by the new Labour government about changing healthcare structures, with a focus on moving patients away from hospitals with heavy demands and allowing more work in the independent sector or the community. This alignment is a key part of what we do.
We anticipate maintaining this organic growth trajectory over a wider geography. Where there’s under-provision of surgical capacity, we’ll strategically place surgical hubs. The first hub is quite well-advanced in planning and is located where there’s a geographical gap, far from other independent hospitals or NHS facilities.
Q3: The interim dividend has been increased to 2.07 pence per share, reflecting strong cash generation. How does this align with the Group’s strategy to balance shareholder returns and reinvestment in growth?
A3: As you highlight, One Health is a highly cash-generative business and probably always has been. Using that cash, which generates strong reserves, supports our approach and enables the payment of dividends while making sure we continue to invest in future growth. These reserves mean we have enough cash for investment but also sufficient reserves to make healthy and growing dividend payments over time.
To reassure you, One Health has always paid dividends, even before we listed as a business in November 2022. Post-listing, we see dividend payments as an important characteristic for investors, as highlighted during shareholder meetings and the Investor Roadshow. We believe that while shareholder returns through dividends are vital, capital growth is equally important. This is reflected in the growth of our share price, which has increased by 40% since our listing in November 2022, bucking market trends.
Capital growth and dividend payments are key to ensuring we protect future investments while maintaining sufficient cash reserves.
