PATIENTS are facing an uncertain future after a private company that runs health care services in east Cleveland revealed it was in financial difficulty.

The future of Marske Medical Centre is in doubt after the private healthcare company which took over less than a year ago went into administration.

The contract to run the centre - which had been under the control of the South Tees NHS Foundation Trust - was awarded to Doncaster-based Danum Medical Services Ltd (DMSL) in April last year.

A spokesman for DMSL said: “I can confirm that DMSL has gone into administration.

“It’s important to know how difficult this has been for both directors, Kevin Lee and Chhitij Mohan, who are themselves local GPs who want to provide the best healthcare they can for patients.

“One of the things they could have done is scale back the provision of services. But they have chosen not to do that. They tried as best they could as doctors to provide care for patients."

Redcar MP Anna Turley lays the blame for the decision at the feet of the government.

She said: “This is terrible news for patients in Marske and is a result of government mismanagement of the NHS and a failure to tackle the growing recruitment crisis in our health service.

"The NHS is on course for a deficit of almost £3 billion this year, fuelled by a reliance on more expensive agency staff, and medical centres like the one in Marske are casualties of the government’s failure to tackle it."

No one from NHS England was available for comment tonight (Monday, March 14).