Take Care Now was an independent provider of

Out-of-hours service Out-of-hours services are the arrangements to provide access to healthcare at times when General Practitioner surgeries are closed; in the United Kingdom this is normally between 6.30pm and 8am, at weekends, at Bank Holidays and sometimes if the ...

s in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The company had contracts in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

and

Waveney Waveney may refer to: * River Waveney, a river that forms the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk, England * Waveney District, a local government district in Suffolk, England * Waveney (UK Parliament constituency) * Waveney class lifeboat, a class ...

, and

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

Civil action against the company

In May 2009, civil legal action was begun against Take Care Now after a locum doctor, Daniel Ubani recruited by TCN, through a locum agency, was convicted of manslaughter for giving a patient an overdose of morphine. He had flown into the UK the day before his 12-hour Cambridgeshire shift for Take Care Now and had only had a few hours' sleep. A spokeswoman for the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

said: ""We are aware of a number of concerns in relation to out-of-hours care provided by Take Care Now to the NHS."{{Cite news, url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/8032124.stm, title=Watchdog to probe patient death, date=4 May 2009

Demise

Take Care Now has been taken over by Harmoni and is now trading as Suffolk Integrated Healthcare.

References

External links

Take Care Now Official website
Private providers of NHS services