A private provider “just exited” the site from which it was providing diagnostic services without giving formal notice and against the wishes of the commissioning integrated care board, HSJ has discovered.
Practice Plus Group withdrew from supplying X-ray, echocardiography and ultrasound services at Oak Park Community Clinic in Havant in Hampshire, just before Christmas, after the site’s owners served notice on the company to cease using it.
Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board interim chief delivery officer James Lowell told the Portsmouth City Council health overview and scrutiny panel the commissioner refused to accept Practice Plus Group’s intention to quit the site, but the company had “just exited the facility”. Mr Lovell added that PPG: “continued to provide those services in a similar site, nearby, but not close enough.”
PPG has relocated its diagnostics to its Portsmouth Surgical Centre. However, Havant is badly served by public transport, with the ICB describing the journey to the city as “difficult for patients”.
Date: 23 March