ANGRY patients will take their protests over the IMH fiasco to the capital next week.

The Manchester-based call centre firm’s management of five Swindon GP surgeries has brought a catalogue of problems since last August.

Now answers are being demanded from NHS England, whose board meeting on September 26 at Skipton House in London will be attended by a busload of patients from the town.

Kate Linnegar is leading the charge. Labour’s parliamentary candidate for North Swindon has written to NHS England a number of times about IMH but has yet to receive a response, so will be handing over a letter in person to ensure the message gets through.

She said: “We felt that our concerns were not being properly addressed by the Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group and asked NHS England to intervene.

“It’s important that NHS England understands the problems that Swindon residents have been subjected to and the stress and anxiety this has caused.”

Irene Tucker, a patient of Moredon Medical Centre, will be going along to the protest.

The 52-year-old suffers with fibromyalgia, a long-term illness that causes pain in her body.

Since IMH has been in charge at Moredon, Irene has struggled to see a doctor.

She said: “Sometimes I can’t even get out of bed because I am in so much pain. My mental health is going down because I can’t see a GP.”

A spokesperson for Swindon CCG said: “Swindon CCG is, and has always been, committed to upholding the health and wellbeing of local people.

“And while we acknowledge the IMH situation did not provide many local people with a good experience, our initial approach was to see if the practices could be supported to improve their services and, when it became clear this would not be possible, we ensured appropriate contractual action was taken.

“As an organisation, we have always acted quickly to resolve any situation that posed a threat to patient care and will continue to do so.”

They are still looking for funding and there are still spaces on the bus.

For anyone who wants to join the protest they can email kateslinnegar@gmail.com