Former NHS 111 urgent care provider Totally has collapsed into administration, but said a deal to sell its main divisions will see the “uninterrupted provision” of all its services.
Totally has shed about half its workforce since last year and around 100 jobs are being put at risk as part of the deal announced on Monday.
The Derby-based healthcare firm – which lost the NHS 111 support contract in February this year – has appointed Ernst & Young partners Tim Vance and Sam Woodward as joint administrators after failing to secure bids or strategic investors for the entire firm.
It said that following the appointment, the sale of its selective care and corporate wellbeing subsidiaries, as well as the urgent care division, was completed to rival PHL Group.
“This transaction sees the continued and uninterrupted provision of all services previously delivered by the group,” Totally said.
Totally employed around 1,400 staff at the end of March 2024. By the time it appointed administrators at EY on Friday, it had some 750 employees following two rounds of redundancies.
More than 600 of those have been immediately transferred to the new owners following the sale to PHL – meaning that some 100 roles are at risk of redundancy.
Mr Vance said: “We are pleased to have agreed the sale of Totally which safeguards critical frontline NHS services and includes the retention of over 600 jobs.”
Totally added: “PHL Group will make separate announcements shortly, including communication with the customers, suppliers and employees of the elective care and urgent care divisions, and the corporate wellbeing business, which are all continuing to provide all services as normal following the transaction.”
The company’s failure comes after a difficult past year, with the firm losing the NHS 111 contract worth £13 million and then revealing last month it was facing a potential medical negligence claim related to an incident in January 2018.
At the time, it warned the size of the liability for the claim could be more than the £10 million claim limit on its insurance policy.
It launched a strategic review to look at options, including the sale of subsidiaries “receiving strategic investment or undertaking some other form of comparable corporate action”.
Shares in the firm plummeted at the time.
On June 6, it announced its intention to appoint administrators after the review had failed to see any “solvent” offers for parent firm Totally and suspended its shares from trading on London’s junior Aim market.
PHL – the buyer of its trading divisions – was launched in 2009 and runs services in the UK and overseas, including integrated urgent care, urgent treatment centres, surgical insourcing, custody healthcare, ADHD services and general practice.
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