Apprentice sells ad screens to NHS

The winner of the BBC business entertainment series The Apprentice will work for a business selling digital signs to GP practices and other NHS bodies.

Yasmina Siadatan has been given a £100,000 job with Sir Alan Sugar’s Amscreen Health Care business. Siadatan beat off competition from 15 other competitors in the award-winning business show to be chosen as The Apprentice by Sir Alan this week.

Sir Alan founded Amstrad and is now the chairman of the technology company Viglen. His other businesses interests include the digital signage company Amscreen which is run by his son Simon Sugar.

The business, previously called Comtech M2M, was acquired by Sir Alan last year. Its health care division is targeting GPs, hospitals, pharmacies and other NHS bodies with digital signs that will run advertisements alongside NHS and patient information.

For GPs, this might mean on items such as repeat prescriptions, clinic times, surgery hours and messages related to the Quality and Outcomes Framework.

Siadatan, a restaurant owner from Hull, is expected to start selling the digital screens at the end of the month.

A spokesperson for Amscreen told EHI Primary Care: "We are giving her some time off to recharge her batteries but she will be starting work towards the end of the month."

Last year, the company announced a trail deployment deal with Lloyds Pharmacy, with digital advertising screens in the Birmingham and Oxford regions.

Latest figures show that the health care division currently has 448 screens in use across the UK and a spokesperson said they were adding 50 additional sites a month.

Siadatan told the BBC that she relished the opportunity to work in a digital signage company – although it would be a big change from her previous job.

She added: “I think the job is going to change my life. I will be working in a completely different industry and I’m going to be leaving catering which is a massive passion of mine.”

Last year’s Apprentice winner Lee McQueen is the development director of Amscreen, although he focuses on the retail arm rather than the health care business.