London healthtech raises £10m funding round to tackle NHS patient backlog

YFM Equity Partners, Ananda Impact Ventures and 24 Haymarket have announced the completion of a £10m funding round into London based patient engagement platform DrDoctor.

The company provides digital care solutions to increase communication and engagement between patients and clinicians, managing 25 per cent of NHS outpatient appointments. This is primarily via patient-led booking, waitlist management and digital access to clinicians, improving provider productivity and helping the NHS tackle the backlog of patients.

In a world where the demands on healthcare are increasing, with more people needing care every day, services are under more pressure than ever. DrDoctor’s patient engagement solutions give over 19 million patients better access to care, whilst supporting clinicians in addressing the inherent system inefficiencies across the healthcare system.

The solution drives efficiencies by reducing the number of missed appointments and decreasing administrative costs, demonstrating a return on investment from its customers. This includes over 40 NHS partner trusts, supporting over 70 million NHS appointments to date.

For DrDoctor, the future of healthcare is “personalised”, being delivered online and at home where possible, with empowered patients at the centre of the system. Following the Series A in 2020, this funding round will allow DrDoctor to further expand the sales and development teams, make greater investment in the product and continue to scale across the NHS.

Tom Whicher, co-founder and CEO of DrDoctor, commented: “If personalised care is to become an NHS-wide reality, there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way we approach healthcare. We see this latest support from our investors as confirmation of our role as a key enabler for these necessary changes.

“We’ve already proven how a digital-first approach can have a profound effect on productivity, evidenced by our substantial footprint in the NHS. Thanks to this latest investment, we are moving forward with some incredibly exciting projects, accelerating our journey to delivering truly modern healthcare.”

Helen Villiers, investment director at YFM Equity Partners, added: “Today the healthcare service and the NHS is under supreme amounts of pressure. Coming off the back of a global pandemic and with more than seven million people on a hospital waiting list in England, patients and clinicians alike are in need of solutions such as DrDoctor’s more than ever.

“DrDoctor helps healthcare systems meet this demand, without sacrificing patient care quality. The company has demonstrated exciting growth and we have been really impressed with the team and their deep domain knowledge.”

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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