THE NEW firm taking on Swindon’s out-of-hours doctors service will not go the same way as failed SEQOL, health bosses have said.

Wiltshire company Medvivo took over the contract for Swindon’s out-of-hours GP service on Thursday.

It has been handed over to the firm by the Great Western Hospital, who were forced to take on the service after community healthcare company SEQOL collapsed in autumn 2016.

NHS commissioners assured councillors that they had “learned” from SEQOL’s failure – and that the transfer of the service to Swindon would put the town’s out-of-hours doctor service in a more “secure position”.

The assurance followed questions at the Swindon Borough Council adult health overview and scrutiny committee this week.

Expressing a “little bit of concern”, former SEQOL board member Coun Eric Shaw said: “What concerned me was that idea of expansion rather than consolidating and then maybe expanding.

“We’ve just had Carillion. I’m just wondering about Medvivo. Is this an expansion by taking over what SEQOL used to do?

“What proof is there that as it expands we’re not going to get to a similar situation that we got with SEQOL? Certainly, when SEQOL started it had a tremendous reputation.”

Gill May, executive nurse at Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group, responded: “You could call it ‘expand’, but the fact is that this to us seems a natural progression for them to take on the GP out of hours work. They provide a very good GP out of hours service currently for Wiltshire residents.”

Stressing Medvivo’s “very good” reputation, she said that company was nowhere near as large as contracting giant Carillion, which last month went into liquidation.

“We all learn and certainly we’ve learned from the events of SEQOL,” said Ms May. “Whilst we’d never say it could never [happen], we would absolutely know what the right thing is to do and how to monitor such a service.”

She said Medvivo could provide a “standardised approach” that would be of particular benefit for those living on the periphery of Swindon, in places like Royal Wootton Bassett.

“We’ll have a far greater access to a bigger pool of workforce if we can’t cover the rotas currently, so I think this is going to put it in a far more secure position.”

From May, Medvivo will also be taking over the contract to provide the NHS 111 non-emergency phone line in Wiltshire, Bath, North East Somerset and Swindon. The contract will also see the firm develop a “clinical hub”, where more experienced clinicians are able to make clinical assessments.

Following that announcement, Medvivo clinical director Dr Jamie Brosch said: “We’re really proud that Medvivo has been awarded the contract and we are committed to delivering an innovative new urgent care service for people in BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire.”