IPC Ceases Trading 27th September 2024
It is with a very heavy heart and great sadness that we need to tell you that Innovations in Primary Care Ltd, a GP Federation, ceased trading and will appoint an insolvency practitioner to take us through liquidation.
We as a board of directors, and the whole senior leadership team, have worked very hard to try to maintain the business as a going concern in an environment where real-terms contract values have been eroded at both Primary Care Network (PCN) and NHS Sussex level.
IPC is a not-for-profit company owned by shareholder NHS GP practices in West Sussex to deliver services to support primary care and covers a population of about 500,000 people. It was founded in 2005 and provided services including extended access Primary Care appointments and chronic wound care, and services at urgent treatment centres. IPC also supported GP practices with administration, employing pharmacists and other ancillary staff and providing back-office services. In the last 12 months our teams have supported more than 30,000 people on behalf of local GP practices and 80,000 patients through NHS111 or at the Urgent Treatment centres in Worthing and Chichester.
Over the last few years IPC has responded promptly, quickly and flexibly to demands for expansion and to deliver primary care services at scale during the setting up of Primary Care Network (PCNs) and during the COVID pandemic. We have, however, been unable to obtain long-term contracts beyond 12 months from any of our major clients recently.
Over the last 18 months the company has undergone significant restructuring to weather these challenges. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been sufficient to stabilise IPC’s financial position and allow it to continue as a viable trading company. We have worked very hard and explored every possible avenue, but sadly this has not be able to deliver a sustainable solution.
Our priority is to our staff and the patients who we serve. We are working hard to support our staff members, and have worked with NHS Sussex and our neighbouring GP federation Alliance for Better Care. We would like to thank them for their support in helping to minimise disruption to patients, practices and staff affected by this difficult news.
Together we have been able to ensure continuation of service delivery in the UTC from this weekend onwards and the preservation of 40 jobs associated with it. We are continuing to explore with them how best other services might be maintained.
The Board of Directors
Innovations in Primary Care Ltd