URGENT Care Cambridgeshire has been chosen as the preferred bidder to provide out of hours GP services across the county. Today s announcement from NHS Cambridgeshire comes after it cancelled the contract with Take Care Now, which previously covered Fenla

URGENT Care Cambridgeshire has been chosen as the preferred bidder to provide out of hours GP services across the county.

Today's announcement from NHS Cambridgeshire comes after it cancelled the contract with Take Care Now, which previously covered Fenland.

Take Care Now was dropped after the death of Manea man David Gray, who was given 10 times the normal recommended maximum dose of a painkilling drug by German locum Daniel Ubani.

Negotiations will now take place between NHS Cambridgeshire and Urgent Care Cambridgeshire (formerly known as CAMDOC) for a contract to start on April 8.

Urgent Care Cambridgeshire was chosen after a county-wide consultation into out of hours services.

Stephen Heard, Director of Contracts & Performance at NHS Cambridgeshire said in a statement: "We are very pleased to be able to announce Urgent Care Cambridgeshire as our preferred bidder for out of hours services across Cambridgeshire.

"Urgent Care Cambridgeshire have been providing quality out of hours services in some parts of Cambridgeshire for more than 16 years.

"We would like to thank everyone who we spoke to during the consultation process at the end of last year for their comments. Over the past few months we have spoken to staff, patient representatives and others, which has helped us to select a bidder for out of hours services across the county.

"NHS Cambridgeshire is collating and assessing the response to the public consultation on out of hours services. Recommendations emerging from this process will be discussed with the preferred bidder and built into the new contract where appropriate.

"Urgent Care Cambridgeshire is already providing out of hours services across much of the county. We are confident that they will operate a high level of service for everyone living in Cambridgeshire."

Urgent Care Cambridgeshire already provided out of hours services across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.

After Take Care Now was dropped it took over Fenland and East Cambridgeshire until a permanent provider was found.

Jack McCollum, chief executive of Urgent Care Cambridgeshire said: "We are delighted to have been selected as preferred bidder to provide out of hours services for people living in Cambridgeshire.

"For many years now, we have been responsible for providing out of hours services to people in some parts of Cambridgeshire.

"We look forward to offering our quality, local GP led out of hours services to the rest of the population of Cambridgeshire from April this year.