GP surgeries row: Now American health company says it is selling up
Control of two surgeries was switched to a new company without any public debate
Friday, 8th September 2023 — By Tom Foot
Protesters headed to the High Court after the change of control
AN American health insurance giant that was able to seize control of NHS contracts to run two surgeries in Islington without any public debate is planning to sell them off, as the company looks to cut ties with the UK.
The Centene Corporation is reportedly in the process of selling its chain of nearly 60 Operose GP surgeries – including four in Camden and two in Islington – with an estimated £52million deal expected before Christmas.
Campaigners have speculated that IT is the latest evidence of the US health industry backing out of the NHS marketplace with a Premier League-style take-over of GP surgeries coming down the pipeline.
In February 2021, the Tribune revealed how two Islington surgeries run by the firm AT Medics Ltd had been transferred to a new company called Operose Health, which was wholly owned by US-based Centene. The transfer – approved by North Central London NHS officials – sparked outrage as patients were not told about the changes and there was no consultation.
But the decision by Centene to exit the NHS market after just two years is not being seen as a victory by campaigners who say the law needs to be changed to stop firms profiting from the NHS.
Professor Allyson Pollock, who has campaigned against NHS privatisation for 20 years, told the Tribune: “In 2004 the government introduced regulations to allow large for-profit companies to take over ownership, control and running of GP practices. These regs are known as APMS (alternative providers of medical services).
“Centene’s decision to exit does not mean the end of for-profit companies running GP surgeries or prevent other companies coming in. “This is why the law must be changed to stop the entry of private for profit companies and equity investors from owning and operating GP surgeries and profiting from NHS funds at the expense of patient care.”
Centene – through Operose – took over the Hanley Primary Care Centre and Mitchison Road Surgery near Essex Road, as well as four practices in Camden. But the move was seen to be part of a wider strategy to secure a significant foothold in the NHS that affected hundreds of thousands of patients in the south of England.
Our story went national and it was not long before MPs realised the significance of what had happened and the shadow health secretary challenged the health secretary about it in the House of Commons. Patients said they were angry at the lack of information and a lively protest was held outside Centene’s officers in Fitzrovia and Islington Keep Our NHS Public took NCL health chiefs to the High Court for a judicial review legal battle, which failed.
Alternative provider of medical services (APMS) contracts were introduced by Tony Blair’s Labour government when Alan Milburn was health secretary.
Neighbouring Camden was one of the first boroughs in the country to trial the new contracts in 2017 when UnitedHealth – another US firm – won contracts to run surgeries in Camden.
Since the UH takeover, the practices have been bought and sold like commodities on the private market – with the Centene sale the latest in a long line of changes for patients.
Health campaigner John Lister, writing in for the Lowdown magazine on the NHS, said: “It’s beginning to look as if the theories of the NHS being remodelled to be ‘sold off’ to US health corporations have suffered something of a setback, with little sign so far of any major US investment, and now a strategic retreat by what seemed to be the front runner.
“It seems more likely that NHS clinical contracts, like so many football clubs, could wind up in Middle Eastern hands, while the Americans focus on the billions to be scooped up at home from the privatisation of government-funded Medicare.”
The company’s staffing policy at the surgeries was probed by a BBC TV Panorama investigation that led to one of the company’s top executives being hauled in to give evidence at an Islington scrutiny committee last year. Last October, the North Central London health chiefs took the decision not to renew Operose Health’s contract to run the Hanley Primary Care Centre.
Operose Health has said that it has been affected by a national shortage to find GPs. Centene has said it has launched a sale process for its chain of nearly 60 Operose GP surgeries in the UK, according to a report by the Financial Times which has not been challenged by the company.
Operose has declined to comment and Centene did not respond.
