A Massive US Private Insurance Company is Taking Over NHS GPs
Why should we be worried?
A risk to continuity of care
Centene (also trading in the UK as Operose) also has a history of withdrawing from unprofitable contracts, including one in complex care, leaving people in limbo as to who will provide their primary care and leaving the NHS to pick up the pieces.
This is a statement from Operose Healthcare:
“Position at 31 December 2019 and future developments … Rationalisation of our business activities… Has continued into 2020, as the business seeks to divest of activities that have not met profitability targets. As a result, on 31 March 2019, Operose Health Limited exited the Surrey Borders Partnership NHS Trust CAMHS contract, and on 1 July 2019, Operose Health (Group) UK Limited divested its complex care division, including the contracts and related assets.“
The Fight Back
A patient in London is so upset about the way her GP surgery was handed to TPG without any public or council oversight, that she is taking the CCG (CCGs organise who runs healthcare services in their area) to judicial review.
And by joining a demonstration being organised nationally but supported locally.
We’ll be in touch about that later on.
This is a big deal.
- When the NHS has surplus money it ploughs the money back into the more complex services like A&E, when private companies have surplus, it is channelled away as profit
- NHS services are being reduced and these companies will have no qualms in selling the services you can’t get on the NHS, that’s if you can afford it. The NHS is not a safety net system, it is a system we all pay into via general taxation. We all contribute.
Thanks for reading and we’ll be in touch with more information soon.