Healthcare Locums sees profits drop as cuts bite
SPENDING cuts by NHS managers have hit profits at medical staffing company Healthcare Locums.
The firm said yesterday pre-tax profits dived 21 per cent to £6.8?m in the first half of 2010.
Executive vice-chairman Kate Bleasdale said: “We have experienced challenging trading conditions in our NHS operations as a consequence of managers’ uncertainty over spending priorities in the run-up to the general election.”
The firm places medical staff including doctors, specialist nurses, and physiotherapists with the NHS and private-sector clients. However, the NHS accounts for less than half of Healthcare’s revenues and the present uncertainty in the UK has been partly offset by strong international growth, it said. Bleasdale said trading would improve as the coalition had secured frontline spending.