PHL Group has grown rapidly in 2025 first via a merger with Malling Health in March and then the acquisition of Totally plc's businesses in June.
PHL Group now provides a range of healthcare services including urgent care centres, out-of-hours GP services and 111 services, and custody healthcare services. The company’s contracts are with both the NHS and private sector organisations.
Updated: June 2025
Strategy
Company expansion
PHL Group was founded in 2009 by a group of GPs and commercial partners. From its base in Hampshire it now operates a wide range of services across the UK, which includes community and primary care services. The company has grown via acquisitions, beginning with acquired Synaptik in 2022. In 2025, the company expanded rapidly first by a merger with Malling Health in March and then by the acquisition of Totally plc's business in June.
The March 2025 merger with Malling Health gave the company several contracts for GP surgeries, urgent care centres and an out-of-hours service (see Contracts for details).
The acquisition of Totally plc followed the company's financial collapse and move into administration. The company’s urgent care, elective care, and corporate wellbeing subsidiaries were sold to PHL Group.
The collapse into administration followed several months of financial difficulties for Totally plc. PHL Group reported that the NHS services will continue without disruption and that 600 jobs have been safeguarded. However, GPs that worked for Totally from 1 May to 5 June will not be paid by the company, according to PHL Group, but will have to deal with the company administrator Ernst & Young.
In 2012 the company was awarded a contract to run Hampshire GP out-of-hours service, then in 2017 the company was awarded several more NHS contracts. In 2019, it expanded its services to integrated urgent care, clinical assessment, home visiting and enhanced action. In the same year it gained a contract for police custody healthcare in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Further NHS contracts were gained from 2020 onwards.
Financials
PHL Group Holdco Ltd's (company no: 13917258) most recent annual accounts on Companies House are for the year to the end of 30 September 2024. In this period, PHL Group reported turnover of £31.7 million, down 25% on 2023 (£42.4 million), which resulted in a loss after tax of £4.4 million, compared to a loss after tax of £3.1 million in 2023. All turnover was from healthcare services in the UK.
PHL Group Holdco Ltd is the ultimate parent company of PHL Group Ltd (06563486). The latter company reported profit for the financial year to September 2024 as £335,000, down from £724,000 in 2023.
PHL Group is included in the portfolio of Ethos Partners LLP, a private equity company. Ethos Partners LLP invested in PHL Group in August 2022.
Contracts
PHL Group has a number of contracts to run services for the NHS. In 2025, the number of its contracts expanded with the merger with Malling Health and the acquisition of Totally plc's businesses.
PHL Group
Lymington Urgent Treatment Centre
The UTC looks after patients with an urgent minor injury or an urgent minor illness which is not critical or life threatening. Patients of the UTC also have access to diagnostic facilities such as x-ray.
Custody healthcare contracts
PHL Group launched the custody healthcare service in January 2019 when it began providing services to Hampshire Police across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. PHL Group now has several more contracts for custody healthcare, as follows:
- Contracts for custody healthcare services for both West Mercia and Warwickshire Police Custody Services, awarded in June 2024 and begun 1 September 2024. Under the new contracts PHL Group will provide comprehensive healthcare support within the custody environments.
- A contract for a police custody service for North Yorkshire Police began in March 2024.
- In January 2024, the company began providing custody services to Guernsey.
- A contract for the contract to delivery Custody Healthcare Service for the City of London began 1 April 2022.
Hampshire & the Isle of Wight ADHD service
PHL Group launched its Adult ADHD Service for Hampshire and Isle of Wight in April 2024.
PHLSynaptik
Based in Dunfermline, Scotland, PHL Group acquired Synaptik in 2022. The company offers a fully managed service insourcing model that employs NHS Consultants. Insourcing is where companies conduct medical procedures, such as surgery and diagnostics, in NHS premises in downtimes, primarily the weekend, when the NHS is not using the premises. The staff they employ are generally full-time NHS employees who work on their rest days.
PHLSynaptik highlights ophthalmology, gastroenterology & endoscopy, and orthopaedics on its website, but covers a wide range of services.
The company also works with NHS organisations on a range of service developments, such as teledermatology.
Malling Health's contracts
Malling Health has 11 contracts with the NHS, as follows:
- three urgent care centres - Shrewsbury, Walsall and Dudley
- Sandwell out of hours service
- Eight GP health centres - Botolph Bridge, Cambridge, East Barnwell, Sandwell, Roysia surgery in Royston, Willow Tree surgery in Hayes, and Waterbeach.
Totally plc's businesses
Pioneer Healthcare
This is Totally's insourcing subsidiary and it is listed on the NHS Share Business Service national framework agreement for insourcing. The companies listed have already gone through a competitive tendering procedure to be put on the list and can be used by trusts without additional contract tendering. An initial framework began back in 2018 and ran until September 2022. A new framework began in July 2023 and runs until July 2027.
Vocare
Totally plc, as Vocare, has run a number of GP out-of-hours services, integrated urgent care services and 111 services over the past decade or more. In early 2025 the company listed eight urgent care centres on its website.
The urgent care centres are in Malton, Scarborough, Selby, and York in North Yorkshire; Staffordshire House urgent care centre in Stoke; Watford urgent treatment centre in Hertfordshire, and in south east London, the urgent care centres at Princess Royal University Hospital, Beckenham Beacon, and King’s College Hospital.
In early 2025, Vocare had two NHS 111 contracts, one in Newcastle upon Tyne and one in Staffordshire.
Under the name, Northern Doctors Urgent Care (NDUC), Vocare delivers urgent care and out-of-hours GP services to 1.5 million patients in Northumberland, North and South Tyneside and Newcastle. The company also manages the North East NHS 111 service, in partnership with the North East Ambulance Service.
Through Staffordshire Doctors Urgent Care (StDUC), Vocare provides GP led out-of-hours care for Staffordshire and the NHS 111 service across the whole of Staffordshire serving a population of over one million people. In February 2021 it was announced that Vocare will continue to provide integrated urgent care services for the Staffordshire and Stoke clinical commissioning groups for a further 12 months and in February 2022 a further 12month extension was awarded.
As Yorkshire Doctors Urgent Care (YDUC) Vocare runs an Integrated urgent Care service in Scarborough and Ryedale. This includes urgent care centres at Scarborough Hospital and Malton Hospital. YDUC also runs a GP out-of-hours service for the Vale of York at York Hospital and the GP OOH Service based inside Selby War Memorial Hospital. Vocare also manages a new urgent care service covering the east of the county and Rutland. Vocare delivers urgent care for minor injuries and illnesses from 34 GP practices across the region and urgent care centres in Oadby, Oakham, Market Harborough and Melton Mowbray. In February 2021, Vocare's contract for GP OOH service was extended by 2 months until March 2022; this was valued at £900,000.
Premier Physical Healthcare
Premier provides physiotherapy and podiatry services via NHS contracts and to private patients. The company has a number of contracts to provide these services to prisons and to police forces.
About Health
About Health is involved in referral management services (RMS). Contracts include a number of contracts for NHS commissioning organisations.
Totally Health
The subsidiary, Totally Health had contracts with commissioners to deliver the company’s long-term management programme for COPD patients and other patients with chronic conditions. Since 2012, the company’s programmes have been developed and rolled-out for use with patients with other long-term conditions, including diabetes, chronic heart failure and asthma.
The company is also involved with the development of Apps for patients, including Patient Decision Aids (PDAs), that cover 36 specific disease areas.
Greenbrook Healthcare
Acquired in June 2019, Greenbrook Healthcare ran nine urgent care centres and four walk-in centres in London/home counties, an Ealing GP practice, Greenwich GP Out of Hours Service and Hounslow Intermediate Community Response Service. The company no longer runs these services.
In 2023 contracts for urgent care centres in North West London (NWL). The NWL ICB awarded the contracts to the region’s four acute trusts after terminating a short-term contract with Totally (as Greenbrook Healthcare) following performance and staffing concerns.
Concerns
Care Quality
In 2023, North West London ICS terminated Greenbrook Healthcare's contract to run four urgent treatment centres following performance concerns. The impacted sites include Hillingdon UTC, which is co-located with the Hillingdon Hospitals Foundation Trust, as well as the Ealing, Central Middlesex and Northwick Park sites that are near to the respective hospitals run by London North West University Healthcare Trust.
The ICS declined to say why the contract had been ended, but a senior source close to the situation told HSJ it followed performance and staffing concerns. Winter and performance plans published by the ICS in July and October last year cited performance problems with its UTCs, although it did not mention particular centres.
In December 2017, Vocare's urgent care centre at the Royal University Hospital, Bath, was rated 'requires improvement' by the CQC, which found equipment inadequate, including children’s oxygen masks, that had expired at least nine months before. The centre was told to improve its equipment and its leadership and effectiveness. Vocare no longer has this contract. The Paulton urgent care centre in the same area was also rated as 'requires improvement'.
According to the CQC, Wolverhampton Urgent Care Centre inspected in February 2018 was rated as ‘requires improvement’ overall, with criticisms of safety, responsiveness, effectiveness and its leadership. By early 2019, the rating had risen to 'good'. The St Mary’s Urgent Care Centre inspected in June 2018 was rated ‘requires improvement’ for leadership and effectiveness and in June 2019, overall it was rated 'good' but 'requires improvement' for safety.
In September 2017, Vocare’s service in Staffordshire, run under name Staffordshire Doctors Urgent Care, was given a ‘requires improvement’ rating by the CQC. Inspectors reported that the safety, effectiveness and leadership of the urgent care service was not up to standard, with lower standards at the weekends with under-pressure staff struggling to meet performance and response time targets. The urgent care centre North Staffordshire run by SDUC was rated 'inadequate' in June 2018; it was rated inadequate on safe, effective and well-led measures and was only good on the caring measure.
In August 2017, Vocare’s out-of-hours GP services in Somerset was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission following an inspection and it was put in special measures. Soon after the BBC received an anonymous letter, seemingly from a Vocare employee, which claimed that “night-time doctor shifts had not been filled, and doctors were brought in from as far away as Newcastle to plug gaps in out-of-hours cover.”
It also claimed “Vocare hired doctors without carrying out adequate background checks.” The BBC was told by a former Vocare HR manager that “he agreed with most of the claims, and agreed there was inadequate vetting of agency doctors.”
When asked by the BBC about Vocare’s service, the commissioning CCG said that the service was still "unacceptable" but that although it had considered cancelling the contract, as winter pressures were just beginning, it was considered too much of a risk.
