January 2011

City & County Healthcare complete Belfast deal

City & County Healthcare Group Ltd, one of the UK’s largest domiciliary care businesses, has expanded its coverage with the acquisition of Belfast-based domiciliary care business Quality Care Services (QCS).

QCS is the leading domiciliary care provider in Belfast, servicing contracts outsourced by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. The business was started in 1994 and currently delivers approximately 4,600 hours per week of care, mostly to elderly people in their own homes. It has two branches, one for each of the Belfast ‘commissioning areas’ of South & East, and North & West. Both have excellent ratings from the RQIA, the care inspectorate for Northern Ireland.

QCS will continue to be run on a day-to-day basis by their experienced General Manager, Fred Sweetlove. Mr Sweetlove will work alongside City & County’s team, headed by CEO Craig Rushton, to operationally integrate the businesses and continue to grow the regional client base.

Sovereign Capital-owned City & County Healthcare Group has expanded significantly in the past year, both through organic growth and acquisitions. It has opened three new branches, in Brentford, Enfield and Bournemouth, and bought two healthcare businesses – Sterling Homecare in April 2010 and Guardian Homecare UK in September of the same year.

City & County Healthcare Group chief executive Craig Rushton said: “We believe the scale of the business and opportunity of the marketplace make Quality Care Services an attractive bolt-on for City & County Healthcare Group. It consolidates our existing presence and establishes critical mass in Northern Ireland, following our acquisition of Guardian Homecare in September 2010.

“One of the biggest attractions of the Belfast and Northern Ireland markets is that currently only around half of the province’s annual domiciliary care spend is outsourced to the private sector, compared to over 80 per cent in England.”

For more information visit www.candchealthcare.co.uk.