NHS bosses have terminated a health provider’s contract following a series of concerns over its running of a GP surgery.

Anglian Community Enterprise has been heavily criticised by patients and MP Giles Watling over its running of Caradoc Surgery in Frinton.

The health provider has also been given one month to improve the management of three other surgeries - Epping Close Surgery in Clacton, Frinton Road Medical Centre in Holland-on-Sea and Green Elms Surgery in Jaywick.

Patients had been left angry at being forced to wait more than

30 minutes to book appointments, order prescriptions and get test results after ACE introduced the new Care Navigation telephone system last year.

Lisa Llewelyn, North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group’s director of nursing and clinical quality, said ACE has been given 28 days notice of the decision to terminate the contract, with Caradoc set to be taken over by Clacton’s Ranworth Surgery on a “caretaker” basis until a permanent plan is put in place.

She said: “Some of the aspects we are concerned about involve the telephone hub, which is linked to the other three practices under ACE.

“We will issue remedial notices for them to improve with the other three practices.

“They will have 28 days to do that and if we don’t see any improvement we will take further action.

“This offers a smoother process given the immediacy of the situation. In other words, we cannot afford for this to continue because we believe it would be putting patient safety at risk.”

“We will work with the public and the patients to understand what that change means and offer them the information they need in order to pursue a good service going forward.”

Clacton MP Giles Watling previously lambasted the “appalling” telephone system and asked the Government what can be done to hold Anglian Community Enterprise to account after his calls for the Care Quality Commission to take action were not heeded.

He was told the CQC could not take action because the surgery received a “good” rating by the CQC in the safety category.

Following the CCG’s decision to take action, Mr Watling said: “It’s sad that the patients at these four GP surgeries have had to put up with so much over the past few years.

“It should never have happened and it’s been the largest part of my inbox since the election.

“I am delighted to see that we now stand a good chance of getting the GP service that this area deserves.

“My family and I are patients at Caradoc too and as a result we know only too well how patchy the service has been.

“I sincerely hope that we can now move on to better care for the whole Clacton constituency.”

An ACE spokesman said the provider “wholly rejected” concerns raised over patient safety.

He added it had yet to receive any formal notification from the CCG about the termination of the Caradoc contract.

He said: “Obviously, we find the CCG’s decision regretful.

“ACE has undoubtedly encountered challenges in developing our new Care Navigation operating model across our four GP practices.

“However, we have seen significant and measurable improvements in quality and outcomes in the last 18 months, all of which the CCG has witnessed and endorsed.

“Such improvements have been achieved at the same time as ACE being forced to absorb a 23 per cent cut in year-on-year income received from the NHS for our GP services since 2015/16.

“We will focus our efforts on supporting ACE’s staff attached to Caradoc to transfer safely and effectively to the new temporary contractor, Ranworth. The CCG has stipulated such a transfer must be completed within 28 days.”