OP Simon Hudson (74-81) reported that Cloud2, the company he founded twelve and a half years ago, was acquired in May 2021 by IT, cloud and digital transformation specialist, BCN Group, to boost its capabilities in the public and healthcare sectors.

Bradford-based Cloud2 is a data analytics and process automation specialist developing cloud-based products to solve complex data and compliance issues for public sector and healthcare organisations across the UK.

Although Simon largely stepped out of the day-to-day leadership of the firm in 2019, he maintained his engagement in the company until it was sold. He said: “I am very proud that something I built, with my business partner, Taran Sohal, has been successful.”

Simon continues to lead Kinata Ltd, the clinical technology business he founded in 2012 connecting GPs with specialist clinicians through its online platform, Kinesis.

He said: “The traditional system of GPs referring patients to hospitals is unnecessarily costing the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds annually. It can be drastically reduced simply by GPs being able to communicate directly with consultants.”

“The Kinesis system gives them a clear, fast route and also improves their skills to help future patients.”

“It is incredibly easy to use, GPs grasp it after 15 minutes of training and the benefits are enormous.”

“GPs can treat patients quicker and more directly which is what they want while consultants see a higher proportion of really important cases that genuinely need their specialist help.”

Earlier this year, the company helped the 100,000th patient to avoid going to hospital unnecessarily. The company has also expanded into the prison service and was recently featured in The Times for providing a potential solution to reducing NHS waiting lists in the wake of the pandemic.