The fully listed company increased pre-tax profits by £5.6 million to £28.1 million, on turnover up 20 per cent to £410 million in the year to September.

Care UK grew fastest in residential healthcare, where turnover rose 54 per cent and operating profits advanced 44 per cent with growth stimulated by the £14 million buy-out of the owner of the other half of Partnership Health Group.

Chief executive Mike Parish says Care UK established itself as the leading independent provider of ‘enhanced’ primary and secondary care to National Health Service patients, providing specialist surgery, chemotherapy, hip replacements and other services, shortening hospital stays, cutting the average number of consultant visits to patients in hospital from three to 1.2 per stay and making 24 per cent savings here for the NHS.

In social care, where 70 to 80 per cent of Care UK’s beds are for dementia sufferers and other acute patients, turnover increased a lesser 5 per cent and operating profit fell 4 per cent. Parish attributes this to underperformance in community care, the result of growing faster than the company could deliver, and says ‘recovery is on the way’ after investment in new management and systems.

With most income coming from local authorities, he says the company is considering building new care homes ‘in more affluent areas’ for self-paying patients, as public provision becomes restricted to those with higher needs.

With bank facilities until 2015 and cash of its own, he says Care UK has £94 million of headroom for takeovers or other purposes. Analysts see pre-tax profits reaching £32.5 million to £33 million this financial year, with earnings approaching 35p a share.