Takeover of 20 GP practices approved by OFT

SSP Health was named by NHS Merseyside as the preferred bidder to run the practices in Liverpool and Sefton in November, following a tender.

The arrangement has since been under review by the OFT, which was deciding whether the takeover constituted a merger which fell within its jurisdiction.

The OFT last week said the takeover had been “found not to qualify” as a merger for consideration.

SSP Health, a company run by husband and wife Sanjay and Shikha Pitalia, took over the running of the practices early this year, while the decision was awaited.

Previously the company either ran or jointly ran 17 practices across the North West, serving around 50,000 patients. They cover parts of Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, Wigan, St Helens and Salford.

Meanwhile, in recent months, Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group’s governing body has heard concerns that the SSP practices had not been participating in commissioning.

A spokesman for SSP Health told HSJ: “This helps to provide assurance to both staff and patients around continuity of services… Our priority now is to ensure appropriate patient access from each existing site. Clinical resources need to be optimised for maximum patient contact.”

The spokesman said SSP Health was introducing teaching into the practices and was “keen to engage with CCGs and some of our GPs are already on CCG boards and actively involved in commissioning”, adding: “We are keen to establish networks locally and support initiatives to improve patient services.”