Earlier in January Boots UK announced the acquisition of Wiggly-Amps Limited, a health technology company providing solutions that enable patients and their GPs to better manage their prescription needs.
Since the acquisition the company has had a name change to Engage Health Systems and we spoke with the MD Witte to find out a bit more about the company:
“Founded in 2000, as a general Internet Service Provider, Wiggly-Amps quickly found itself starting to work more and more with General Practice in the local area. As time progressed it became apparent that supporting NHS Primary Care was where our strengths lay, and we ran down the non core business route to give us better focus. Wiggly-Amps now has 24 employees and is continuing to grow since moving in November to its new 5500Sqft offices in the Market Town of North Walsham. Despite the sale of Wiggly-Amps to Boots UK, the new business remains in private ownership and continue to support primary care with a range of quality, cost effective products and services.”
We asked what is unique about your organisation?
“Although this sounds like somewhat of a cliche, it’s our people that make us unique. Really. Being a rural business, it can be hard to attract quality staff, but when we do find them, they all seem to drop right in with our company culture. Perhaps this is due to the steady but pleasant pace of life out in North Norfolk. Regardless – we have a fantastic team with great working relationships; I wouldn’t change any of them. It’s very satisfying to be able to provide engaging, high tech employment on the edge of a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”
What is the most significant achievement for your organisation in the past 12 months?
“Aside from the recent acquisition of Wiggly- Amps by Boots UK, we are very proud of the inroads we’ve made in the on-line consultation arena with Engage Consult. It’s a young market place, with many different approaches to helping reduce the pressures on our GPs whilst improving the quality of service for patients. After securing some major STP localities, we have good traction now and are looking forwards to continue to develop the service in the years ahead.”
What will be the most significant advancement in the next 12 months?
“We are really looking at delivering more of the above with Consult – Better integration with GP systems and national systems and inter-organisational working both high on our list.”
What do you think to the NHS Long Term Plan?
“Long term stability is what our industry requires in order to justify the investment in the developing and creation of services. Whilst the plan gives some assurance here, we’ve been in this game long enough to know that the articulated stability can be somewhat illusionary in practice. A cross party commitment on shared core objectives should not have been be impossible to achieve, and we’re disappointed not to see at least some element of that in the plan.”
What problems and challenges are there to overcome?
“Probably the seductive nature of AI and other novel services. There are some quite outlandish claims being made; A robust system to measure and compare the benefits of any technology, new or existing, would allow the NHS to procure based on evidence rather than on who has the largest marketing budget.”
We asked what do you think is the biggest technology challenge?
“As ever, interoperability. The GPSoC program made good progress here, but there’s a lot more required. Being placed in a position to hold sensitive patient data is a privilege; you should not be able to charge for access or decide who has the ability to integrate with you – that chokes progress. InterOPEN / GPConnect is a good model here and we look forwards to seeing it flourish as we move into the world of GP IT Futures.”
What is new for the company?
“The name change, for one – Engage Health Systems- that’s going to take some getting used to. Other than that, we’re excited to be able to continue our organic growth and will be building the team considerably in the coming months. We value our independence and will be able to continue to “do it right” without any external influences.”
What advice would you give to other organisations or professionals?
“Our medical records and our health are two of the most important things to all of us. If you have a service that can make a difference, stick with it and don’t compromise your principles. There’s lots of networking opportunities out there for suppliers to talk and compare notes, so use them. You might feel like it’s a continual uphill struggle, but from time to time you’ll get a call from a patient or a clinician telling you the difference your product made that day, and that makes it all worth while.”
— Thank you to Jon Witte and the team at Engage Health Systems —
