CHS Healthcare chief executive Dr Richard Newland has been selected as a finalist in prestigious EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards.

Dr Newland, who founded CHS Healthcare in 1995 while working as a Birmingham GP, is a Midlands finalist in the Sustained Excellence category. Though his work in general practice, Dr Newland recognised there was a lack of good quality advice and professional guidance for families making important care choices.

He used private finance to establish the company, based on advisers supporting families to find care and began with a single employee. Today, CHS Healthcare employs 350 people with services throughout the country, from London and the south coast up to the north-east and Cumbria.

CHS Healthcare is the leading independent provider of services to support the discharge of patients from hospitals, avoiding costly delays. The company also has the largest resource in continuing healthcare and complex care; delivering bespoke, specialist services to the NHS.

The EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards are now in their twentieth year and are widely recognised as a benchmark for recognising excellence in business.

Some of Britain’s best-known business figures are former EY Entrepreneur of the Year winners, including: Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded the low-cost airline easyJet; Dragon’s Den investor Peter Jones, who started-up Phones International Group; and Richard Reed, CBE, one of the founding partners of Innocent Drinks.

Joanna Santinon, EY Entrepreneur of the Year UK Leader, commented: “EY Entrepreneur of the Year was launched in the UK twenty years ago, to celebrate the engine room of the UK economy. Entrepreneurs not only create jobs and generate wealth, they also help to inspire other businesses, with their positivity, persistence and vision.”

Dr Newland is one of a group of Midlands finalists who will attend an awards ceremony on June 26, with the winners going on to a national judging process.