A PRIVATE equity firm is set to take control of two surgeries in Islington – a company formerly known as Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Healthcare Ltd.

Mitchison Road Surgery and Hanley Primary Care Centre have since 2021 been run by a joint venture of AT Medics and Operose Health, which is owned by the Centene Corporation – one of the biggest health insurance companies in the US.

Less than three years later, NHS chiefs have now been told that all Operose surgeries – there are around 60 in the capital and south of ­England – are due to be transferred under the control of the “HCRG Group”, in a deal believed to be worth £50million.

Virgin Care – part of Sir Richard’s group of companies – rebranded as the “HCRG Group” in 2021, before being sold to an investment company.

Professor Sue Richards, chair of Keep Our NHS Public, said: “This change of control is even more difficult to justify as the company taking over is a private equity with no experience at all of health, and as a private equity company, no requirement to post company accounts, so it is very hard to see how the ICB [Integrated Care Board] ensure that the company taking over control is of good standing.”

HCRG Care Group Holdings Ltd, now the parent company to the HCRG group of companies, is registered in Runcorn, Cheshire, and was previously Virgin Healthcare Holdings Ltd until December 2021.

The company is owned by T20 Pioneer Holdings Ltd (Twenty20), which is itself owned by the investment fund Twenty20 Capital Ltd. If agreed, it would be the latest change at the two surgeries that have been tossed about on the private market since 2007, at the birth of New Labour’s NHS privatisation programme.

For the first time, so-called “Alternative Provider Medical Services” contracts were introduced that allowed private companies to bid to run NHS-funded GP services in this country.

The Operose deal was challenged by the Labour Party, with the then shadow minister suggesting it could be evidence that the then Conservative government was nurturing links between the NHS and the US healthcare market.

The North Central London ICB, which decides how NHS funding is spent in Camden, has published information on its website and agreed to hold a public “webinar”.

It said: “NCL ICB will now commence a formal due diligence process to check that the proposed new owner of Operose Health Ltd is of good standing. We will also seek assurance that the change of control would not affect service provision.

“When considering whether to grant consent to the change of control request, we will assess the proposal carefully and consider whether it is necessary to seek any additional assurances. That decision will be made at a meeting of NCL ICB’s Primary Care Committee which provides oversight, scrutiny and decision making for primary medical services.”

A spokesperson for HCRG Care Group said: “We have agreed with Centene a proposal to transfer ownership of Operose Health and AT Medics to our UK-based health and care organisation. We are committed to supporting Operose Health’s continued delivery of local high-quality NHS primary care and contractual responsibilities, which aligns with our track record of delivering for patients, communities and the NHS over the last 15 years.”