'Written off by doctors': How Sussex man beat disability to run multi-million-pound healthcare business
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Josh Hough says he was ‘written off by doctors’ at an early age – but he was determined to prove them wrong and today he is the founder and CEO of Slinfold-based home care software company CareLineLive, which produces revenues of over £3.5m and has 42 staff.
“I hated being disabled and was determined to get out of my wheelchair,” said Josh. “I would hear the doctors telling my parents that I might not be able to have a job. I think it made me very determined and single-minded.”
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Hide AdJosh was born with a rare genetic condition called Minicore Myopathy which made walking difficult. “It’s a condition which you only get when both parents have a specific gene. I had a lot of specialist treatment when I was young. I went to school in a wheelchair which wasn't nice as kids can be very cruel."


But, despite that, Josh did well and considered university. But he was also entrepreneurial and set up a publishing company with his sister Zoe when he was just 14.
"I was more interested in business than in studying and had a desire to change things. I think I saw the world differently to a lot of people. I was often looking for new and different ways of doing things,” he said.
He became exasperated by the inefficiencies of the healthcare system when he was young and undergoing treatment. "I was visited by countless nurses, doctors and healthcare professionals. Every time I met someone new, I had to go through the same routine – answering the same questions, explaining my condition. It was very repetitive and boring.
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Hide Ad“Meanwhile, they were filling out paperwork or leafing through thick folders of information. It wasn’t very efficient and even as a young child, I was thinking: 'this could be done better'.” In January 2010, when he was aged 18, Josh set up a company providing IT services. The company was doing well, but the idea of improving home care wouldn't leave him.
"My grandfather was receiving care and the family struggled with the lack of communication from carers. Everything I felt and saw as a child came flooding back. I just felt there needed to be a better system and, ultimately, that I had to be the one to create it."
CareLine Live was launched in 2018. "We created an app that joins up everything in a home care business, from patient notes and visits to invoicing and staff rotas. Family members can access it so they know what’s going on. But also, critical healthcare professionals like ambulance drivers can access it, too. Because, if they are attending an emergency, they really need to know whether or not someone has had their medication that day.
"The idea of the ‘circle of care’ is that everyone a patient needs is brought into the loop. People no longer need to spend long periods of time hunting down paperwork. All the information is in one place.”
There is now huge demand for CareLineLive’s services – it now supports more than 600 home care agencies across seven countries, including Australia and Ireland.
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