HOW hard can it be? That is the favourite saying of Erica Rogers, managing director of Ebor Medical Services Ltd, who refuses to accept any obstacle and nearly always manages to make things happen.

Well, what she made happen was Ebor Medical Services, launching it in January 2008 in response to the Government’s policy to offer NHS contracts for the provision of medical services to private companies.

The company, owned by almost 85 per cent of the GPs in York and based at The Old Forge Surgery, at The Green in Upper Poppleton, York, now provides four community services – in dermatology assessment and treatment; in eye care; in carpal tunnel decompression; and in eyelid cyst removal.

And with a turnover for these services over six months on target to be more than £362,000, Ebor Medical Services is seeking the Small Business Of The Year title, while Erica is being nominated in the Women In Enterprise category.

She is an example of a woman educated to O-level standard (at Queen Anne Grammar School, York) and then going straight out to work.

Her first job was as a clerk in the registration department of the family practitioners’ committee – now the primary care trust.

She then moved to its finance department, responsible for paying GPs and their staff in North Yorkshire, and was promoted to the management accounts department, involving herself in crucial areas like budgeting.

With a growing reputation, she was headhunted as an administrator of the York Fundholding Consortium – a group of 12 GP practices with a budget of up to £13 million and a population base of 60,000.

After the Government cut the scheme she became practice manager at Front Street Surgery, Acomb, and meanwhile joined the board of the York Health Group, a group of 24 York practices seeking better ways of delivering patient care. She also launched ER Associates, a property management company for GPS, which liaises with developers on the creation of NHS projects.

Now she manages Ebor Medical Services, which is working towards securing further NHS contracts in other clinical areas such as expansion of gynaecology services in North Yorkshire, a menopause clinic and GP acupuncture clinics. Well man/women clinics will be introduced early next year.

Profit from these services will support research into further improvements for patients in York.