company profile: Fortius Group

52 HealthInvestor • November 2015

Fortius Group has restructured, refinanced and is now re-energised for expansion in the world of private sports injury care. Hannah Thompson reports

Fortius favours the brave

Considering it operates a relatively small, independent sports injury clinic, the Fortius Group is certainly aiming for the big leagues.

From its role as host of the first annual Fortius International Sports Injury Conference (FISIC), which took place on 13-14 October in central London, and brought together hundreds of orthopaedic surgeons, sports physicians, and physiotherapists, to its wider plans for expansion, there is no denying the group’s ambitious aims.

The company was originally established as London Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine Centre in 2010 by Chelsea & Westminster Hospital surgeons Andrew Williams and

Jonathon Lavelle. Its sole facility, the Fortius Clinic, then opened its doors in 2011. Located in London’s Marylebone, the clinic specialises in orthopaedic, musculoskeletal (MSK), and sports injury treatments, including shoulder, elbow, hand, foot and ankle, knee, hip, and spine procedures. It also offers support for chronic pain and conditions such as arthritis and fatigue, is particularly focused on professional athletes (although welcomes the weekend runner and everyone else too), and has a self-pay rate of just over 15%.

Overseen by chief executive Jim McAvoy, who joined the team in June 2010, the group is also on the cusp of a crucial expansion plan. Next year will see it open a second orthopaedic, diagnostic and treatment centre in the City of London and

a surgical centre, also in central London. Plans to expand further afield are also on the cards.

The central London strategy will, Fortius claims, enable the group to widen its services and provide more on-site care for outpatients and surgery patients alike, thereby allowing clinicians to monitor the whole process, from the moment the client presents, to their final, problem-free walk out the door.

The expansion plans come off the back of two significant events. The first is a fundraising initiative, announced in early October, largely financed by the group’s own consultants and a small cluster of private investors. This strategy ensures that all have direct involvement with the business.

company profile: Fortius Group

HealthInvestor • November 2015 53

As part and parcel of this move, the group also went through a corporate restructuring that saw the company rebrand as the Fortius Group and the Fortius Clinic become a subsidiary business.

“The Fortius Group allows us to take the existing business and grow it,” explains McAvoy. “It’s allowing us to roll out our strategy for expansion, and the investment we’re making allows us to open new facilities. When we open our new surgery centre, we will provide an excellent, cost-effective customer experience, and achieve efficiencies in how we do things.”

Cost-effectiveness and excellence are of particular concern, given McAvoy’s view that ensuring affordability and value for money are the industry’s most pressing issues today.

“There needs to be a willingness to address the maintenance of high-quality standards alongside affordability,” he explains. “That means we need to get better, and invest heavily in outcomes.”

However, despite its far-reaching plans, the company is remarkably reticent to reveal how much the refinancing has raised, and how much it plans to spend on its new clinics. It is similarly reluctant to be drawn on its number of clients, although McAvoy is confident that business is healthy. “We’re a busy clinic.”

Certainly they will need to be, given the eye-watering nature of the London property market. The new orthopaedic, diagnostic and treatment centre, will open on King William Street in the heart of the City early next year and the site is spread over a not-insignificant 12,500 sq ft. Meanwhile the surgical centre will begin operation on Bentinck Street near the existing clinic, later in 2016.

A further challenge for McAvoy and his team is that they face stiff competition for patients in London. Private hospitals giants HCA International and BMI Healthcare, not to mention various single specialist clinics. offer similar services in the capital at price points that are, some might contend, just as convenient and attractive as those offered by Fortius.

McAvoy is confident, however. “Outcome measurement will be the chief differentiator in companies. It’s not just about how cheaply you can do something, it’s about whether you can actually deliver. It’s about excellence, throughout the patient treatment pathway, not just business success.”

Understanding these outcomes represents a deep well of knowledge that the group is eager to plumb; collecting, managing, and analysing patient data and outcomes is another of Fortius’ key future objectives. “Research, education, training, affordability…” lists McAvoy. “These are the big challenges in healthcare, and areas that we want to get involved in.” Growing the group and its client base will further this knowledge, thus hopefully making its expansion plans self-sustaining to an extent.

Fortius Group’s plans beyond London are far reaching. “There is opportunity in areas you might expect - the Midlands, the North East, the North West - as well as the South West corridor,” says McAvoy

He is also keen to ensure that this geographical accessibility isn’t confined to the UK, and has serious plans to extend internationally too. As the company’s existing business comes primarily from the Middle East and Gulf, it is here that it has set its main sights in the next few years. “We want to bring the Fortius philosophy, and the way we go about delivering care, to these new geographies. We want to be the pre-eminent orthopaedic and MSK group in the UK, and we think we’re capable of doing that.”

To help make this expansion succeed, McAvoy needs to attract the most competent consultants in London and beyond. Fittingly for a company looking after sportspeople, teamwork is key to Fortius’ philosophy. (Tellingly, he refers constantly to the company’s group of 50 consultants – which started off as 12 and is expected to reach 60 by the end of the year - and is careful to say “we” throughout the interview.) McAvoy believes the company’s “collegiate environment”, which has fostered strong clinician loyalty so far, will help bring in this needed new talent.

Will all this be sufficient to ensure the group’s big growth plans don’t instead become a big loss-making enterprise? McAvoy retorts: “Look, if you’re looking after athletes - multi-million pound assets - then you’ve got to be pretty good at what you do. We reckon if we can do that, we can look after everything else too.”

They are bold words for a small company, On the industry playing field, Fortius clearly wants to move the goalposts. Hopefully its fighting spirit will enable it to emerge – like many of its elite and high-performing clients – as a player to watch. n

Jim McAvoy, chief executive, Fortius Group