I TROUBLE-hit IMH has lost its chief executive.

Dr Martyn Diaper, formerly head of the Manchester-based GP firm, has left with immediate effect. The company has not confirmed whether he had been sacked or resigned.

The boss had been working to turn around IMH’s performance in Swindon. The firm oversees the management of five GP practices in the town.

Since the bungled introduction of a new the central call-handling hub last autumn, one surgery linked to the firm has been rated as inadequate by the watchdog the Care Quality Commission and another has been told to make improvements.

This afternoon, Dr Diaper’s email account was automatically responding to messages – telling correspondents he had left the company. His profile on business social media network Linkedin also seemed to have disappeared.

A spokeswoman for the Better Health Partnership, the trading name given to the five IMH-linked Swindon practices, said: “It is with regret that we confirm the departure of Dr Martyn Diaper from the business with immediate effect. We thank Martyn for his hard work and wish him good luck in the future. Martyn’s roles and responsibilities in the organisation will be assumed by other senior personnel in the business and we will be working with our regulators and CCG partners in these respects.”

Elaine Young, previously chief executive of Buckinghamshire NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, had been hired as Dr Diaper’s replacement.

A frustrated Justin Tomlinson, MP for North Swindon, said “enough is enough”.

“This situation is very serious. IMH have a lot to answer for and there are still huge improvements needed to the new medical hub,” he added.

“I have been pushing relentlessly for improvements as patients, including myself, are very frustrated.

“I have been feeding everything back to the CQC and have asked them to intervene and use their powers to demand improvements from the service with implications if these are not delivered.”

Earlier this month, the Swindon Advertiser revealed the Care Quality Commission had served IMH with enforcement action following concerns during recent inspections.

In a statement, the watchdog said: “We have taken urgent enforcement action to ensure the group leadership address a number of issues inspectors found during these inspections."