UK health-tech platform Florence expands into Canada

Florence, one of the UK’s fastest growing healthcare technology companies, is expanding into the Canadian market.

The announcement comes after it completed an expansion into France last year.

The Florence app helps nurses and other healthcare professionals find flexible work options and enables long-term care homes, hospitals and other organisations to fill open shifts in their schedules with vetted healthcare workers.

The growing demand for care in Canada continues to outpace the supply of health workers, placing significant pressures on the sustainability of the system. Nurses are leaving the profession in record numbers, due to worsening working conditions, heavy workloads and a lack of meaningful job support, with the Covid-19 pandemic further accelerating these challenges.

Florence has appointed Shelly-Ann Rampersad as Managing Director to lead the Canadian business. She has over a decade of experience in the healthcare sector and was formerly Vice President of Clinical Operations at Toronto-based technology start-up, Maple.

Rampersad said: “Health human resourcing is one of the largest issues facing the Canadian healthcare system today. I’m thrilled to be joining the team at Florence to tackle this challenge, and I look forward to working alongside nurses, health workers and healthcare organisations to create a more sustainable path forward.”

Dr Charles Armitage, former NHS doctor, CEO and founder of Florence, added: “We’re so excited to bring Florence to Canada under Shelly-Ann’s leadership.

“Canada is in the middle of a significant workforce crisis and we’re looking forward to supporting providers to help them use technology to build a flexible, efficient and high-quality workforce.”