Synergy, the Swindon-based global firm providing specialist outsourced healthcare support services, is to launch a scheme it claims could generate “significant savings” for the cash-strapped NHS.
The firm, which is already a major NHS contractor, will start the new service in September. It says the outsourced hospital sterilisation service will use the latest technology to improve standards and reduce lead times. 
The market leader in NHS sterile services and linen management, Synergy already partners with NHS trusts across the UK, sterilising essential medical and surgical equipment in its specialist sterilisation centres or by taking over units in the trusts’ own hospitals.
Its SynergyTrak product tracks and traces sterilised items, enabling trusts to manage equipment inventories more effectively and reduce costs.
The NHS has to make efficiency savings worth £20bn while continuing to improve standards in the face of continuously increasing demand, technical advances and expectation from patients – and Synergy believes it can play a key role in lowering costs.
Hospital sterilisation services (HSS) is already Synergy’s largest business division, accounting for just over 40% of global revenues. The new NHS service, if fully adopted, could go a long way to boosting turnover in the division by its target of 10-20% growth a year.
Synergy operates more than 35 specialist sterile service facilities across the globe. It has been providing sterile s since 1996 and now processes more than 100m surgical instruments a year for hospitals, medical clinics and private healthcare providers.
The firm, whose head office is at Windmill Hill, said in a trading update to the London Stock Exchange yesterday that its underlying trading in the three months to June 29 had been in line with expectations with total revenues of £99.1m – up 2.6% on the same period last year.
However, taking into account currency fluctuations, which had a £3.5m adverse impact, revenues were 1.1% lower.
The company said: “With approximately 60% of revenue denominated in currencies other than sterling, we are facing obvious currency headwinds as sterling appreciates against all our market currencies.
“Whilst we remain committed to achieving our underlying growth expectations, the appreciation of sterling may have an effect on our reported results. The outlook for the 2014/15 financial year remains positive given our progress with new contracts and sentiment in our core service lines and markets.”
