\n NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Integrated Care Board (ICB) has abandoned plans for Chilvers and McCrea, the UK’s biggest private GP chain, to take over the site from Norfolk Primary Care, a community interest company.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman from the ICB said Norfolk Primary Care will continue to run the walk-in centre in Rouen Road because changing providers “does not align” with its current priorities.\n<\/p>\n
\n The site in Rouen Road (Image: Denise Bradley)\n<\/p>\n
\n The future of the site, which provides vital healthcare and advice to 6,000 patients every month, has been uncertain for years.\n<\/p>\n
\n It was taken on by Norfolk Primary Care after the firm that ran the site, One Norwich Practices, collapsed in 2023.\n<\/p>\n
\n Chilvers and McCrea, which is part of Operose Health, the UK’s biggest private GP chain, was granted the contract to run the facility in Norwich from April.\n<\/p>\n
\n The company faced scrutiny in 2022 after an undercover BBC Panorama investigation about less qualified staff seeing patients without adequate supervision.\n<\/p>\n
\n The decision to appoint the firm was challenged by local councillors, including Norwich City Council’s Green Party leader Lucy Galvin.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lucy Galvin (Image: Contributed)\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “It’s vital that our residents, including the most vulnerable, can continue to access good quality, local healthcare services which are shaped by the needs of the city’s growing and diverse population.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Patients and professionals highlighted the risks of the previous closure and procurement plans.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It will be crucial that everyone’s voice is heard in the future, and that this saga of uncertainty is never repeated.”\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2025, the ICB considered closing the walk-in centre to save money but dropped the idea before advertising the contracts for the services, choosing Chilvers and McCrea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Integrated Care Board (ICB) has abandoned plans for Chilvers and McCrea, the UK’s biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-734883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}