Glanso UK Ltd, founded in May 2019 in Bristol, organises and carries out surgical procedures for hospital trusts. The company employs a team of staff, generally NHS staff on their rest days, to carry out surgery in operating theatres that are unused at the weekend.
Hospital trusts are using the company to reduce waiting lists for procedures, such as endoscopy. At present the company mainly works in the Bristol and Devon area.
Strategy
In 2013, two consultant anaesthetists based in the Bristol area, Dr Matt Molyneux and Dr Neil Rasburn, set-up Global Anaesthetic Solutions Ltd to provide training in anaesthesia safety and good practice. According to the Glanso website, this business is still carried out:
"We are a team of four consultant anaesthetists with expertise in patient safety and team training. We have delivered workshops and on-site simulation training to over 1000 healthcare professionals with excellent feedback. The CQC have praised our approach to effective WHO and NatSSIP/LocSSIP delivery in our NHS hospitals and we have had several visiting teams to learn from our success."
In 2017, Dr Molyneux and Dr Rasburn, set-up Glanso Holdings Ltd, followed in May 2019 by Glanso UK ltd. The business model for Glanso UK Ltd is as follows: a hospital trust can in-source the company to carry out surgical procedures in its theatres at times when the theatre is not being used - the weekend. Glanso supplies all the staff - theatre nurses, anaesthetists and surgeons - and is paid for its work. The staff, who are generally NHS staff, are paid for the job, rather than an hourly rate. The staff are working on their rest days. The company's website notes:
"Our business model is simple: everyone in the surgical team (surgeon, anaesthetist, ODP, scrub nurse, runner, recovery nurse, porter) is rewarded financially for safe and efficient care. Rather than a simple hourly rate, all members of the team are paid according to the high quality work that has been done. Central to this is putting the patient at the heart of everything we do."
According to the company website Glanso is seeking staff to sign-up for work in the following hospitals: University Hospitals Bristol, North Bristol, Gloucestershire, Barnstaple, Torbay and South Devon, and Exeter, plus Sherwood Hospital Trust in Nottinghamshire.
It is difficult to get accurate information on the amount of work and any contracts Glanso UK Ltd has with the hospital trusts. There are few mentions of the company on the hospital trust websites.
Financials
Glanso UK Ltd's (Company no.:12018020) latest Total Exemption Full Accounts on Companies House are for the 12 month period to 31 March 2025. The company states that it has decided not to file a profit and loss account as it is allowed to do under the Companies Act 2006. The company reported turnover of £6.7m for 12 month to March 2024, but no turnover was reported in the 2025 accounts. A certain amount of income has been revealed in Freedom of Information requests to the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston trust (see below).
According to the accounts the company employed 500 staff over this period of time, up from 465 in 2024.
It is the same situation for Glanso Holdings Ltd (Company no.: 11022693), with no profit and loss account. This company employed just the two directors, Dr Molyneux and Dr Rasburn, over the period 12 month period to 31 March 2025.
A Freedom of Information request to University Hospitals Bristol and Weston available online asked about insourcing in the three month period 1st April 2025 to 30th June 2025 and showed that the trust had paid Glanso £999,132 for work across several specialities.
A Freedom of Information request to University Hospitals Bristol and Weston available online asked about insourcing in the three month period 1st October 2024 to 31st December 2024 and showed that the trust had paid Glanso £1,137,960 for work across several specialities - cardiology, ophthalmology, dental, paediatric ENT, gynaecology, ENT, general surgery and paediatric urology.
A Freedom of Information request to University Hospitals Bristol and Weston available online asked about insourcing in the period 2023/2024 and showed that the trust had paid Glanso £4,153,093 for work across several specialities.
A Freedom of Information request to University Hospitals Bristol and Weston available online revealed, however, that Glanso UK Ltd was paid £475,570.5 in 2018/19 and £1,031,552.39 in 2019/20.
Contracts
Glanso is listed on the 2021 framework contract the "National Flexible Framework for the provision of On-Site Surgical and Medical Capacity Solutions." This covers the full range of Surgical and Medical specialties and sub-specialities.
The contracts between Glanso UK Ltd and hospital trusts are referred to in several board papers. An examination of references in board papers has shown the company to be involved in endoscopy (in Gloucestershire) and orthopaedic surgery (in Devon).
References to Glanso in board papers include notes such as the following on the minutes of a May 2019 North Devon Healthcare Trust meeting:
"Question 4 – Dr McElderry. “How are Glanso fulfilling care that NDDH cannot provide, which area would this be in and is this a short-term measure?
Response – Pete Adey. Glanso is a mechanism being used for long waiting patients, predominantly in orthopaedics. It enables orthopaedic surgeon to undertake lists at weekends. It is a way of executing the lists using an in-sourcing company. The procedures are carried out by Trust surgeons in theatres at NDDH, but involves a different payment mechanism."
Concerns
In late 2025, Unison expressed concerns about patient safety and a conflict of interest over Glanso's contract with University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW) to tackle waiting lists.
Unison has warned of a conflict of interest. It said it also feared NHS staff working extra hours were at risk of burnout.
The union said it was particularly worried about whether "underpaid" NHS staff may "feel the temptation to do this kind of work".
"We know there is a real issue around burnout amongst NHS staff at the moment, so we would want to be very certain that trusts were putting in place the necessary procedures to make sure that they weren't making this worse for the staff. We want to make sure patient safety is preserved and staff wellbeing is protected."
