Chichester MP concerned at sudden loss of GP services

“This is an unexpected and sudden loss of care for patients as well as devastating job losses for staff,” said Jess Brown-Fuller MP, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Hospitals and Primary Care and MP for Chichester, one of the areas affected.

Innovations in Primary Care (IPC) is an Arundel based GP Federation covering 12 Primary Care Networks across West Sussex. IPC provided extended access GP appointments for patients, as well as services at urgent treatment centres including at St Richard’s Hospital, wound care and other support for local GP practices, across West Sussex including parts of the Chichester and Arun districts.

The failure of the provider is believed to be because of a lack of long-term contracts from the Sussex Integrated Care Board and funding from current contracts unable to keep up with inflation.

“The failure of this major GP service provider impacts hundreds of thousands of patients. Since 2016 there have been many closures of GP service providers, both private and not-for-profit federations. This is an issue that needs investigating as it is bad for patients’ health outcomes and for the long-term provision of good quality healthcare in the UK,” said Jess. “I have written to NHS Sussex to ask for a briefing on what safeguards are being put in place to minimise the disruption to patient care and to better understand what support is being put in place for those staff members who have found themselves very suddenly without employment”.