Major private GP provider loses top executives

Allan Johnson, who was chief executive of the Practice Group, resigned on 31 January.

The Practice Group is a private provider of GP services running practices with a registered population of more than 200,000.

It followed the departure of the company’s chief financial officer, Roy Hastings, on 31 December.

The company did not tell HSJ the reasons for the departures. However, it said: “Allan Johnson recently stepped down as CEO of The Practice Group. He will work with TPG in a consultancy capacity until the end of March. Former chief financial officer, Roy Hastings, has left TPG for a new role, his successor will start in March.”

Meanwhile, the Practice Group also confirmed it had so far been unable to file annual accounts for 2016-17 because of “ongoing reconciliations” with NHS Property Services.

It is one of the the largest providers of general practice in the UK, with practices in many different areas, and has since 2016 been majority owned by Centene, the large US based health insurance company.

According to records published by Companies House, the Practice Group was issued with a “strike off action” in December 2017, which occurs when a company does not submit accounts in the expected period. Dates published by Companies House last year show it had been due to file the 2016-17 accounts in September.

In a statement to HSJ, a spokeswoman from The Practice Group said: “Due to ongoing reconciliations with the NHS, [the Practice Group] was not able to submit accounts by the required deadline.

“TPG informed the Registrar of Companies of the situation in 2017 and as a result a stop was put on strike off action.”

It is not known whether these developments have any connection to the departure of Mr Johnson and/or Mr Hastings.

Centene bought a majority stake in the Practice in 2016. Jonathan Lewis joined Centene UK as chief executive in spring 2017, having previously been chief executive of Bromley Healthcare CIC.