NHS campaigners protest outside the offices of Operose Health. Photos: Simon Lamrock

NHS campaigners rallied outside the offices of a private health care company yesterday (Thursday), sending a warning to health bosses: “See you in Court!”

Unions and campaign groups from across London came together to organise the protest against Operose Health in Fitzrovia.

Around 60 people lined the streets with banners and placards with speakers including Unite’s Dr Jackie Applebee and Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, who urged the crowd to “fight on until hell freezes over”.

It came on the day lawyers at Islington firm Leigh Day sent a “letter before claim” threatening North Central London Clinical Commissioning Groups with a judicial review in the High Court.

In February, the NCL was one of several CCGs to approve the transfer of dozens of surgeries across London – including the Mitchison Road in Canonbury and Hanley Primary Care Centre off the Hornsey Road – to Operose, which is owned by the US health insurance giant Centene Corporation.

Patients were unaware of the change until it was revealed in a Tribune exclusive.

Dr Applebee, chair of Doctors in Unite, said: “Centene now has half a million people as patients at their surgeries in the UK. Centene, and their like, operate for profit. The only way to make profit is to cut services and staff.”

She added: “They tell us ‘well GPs are already private’, they are not. I am a GP, I am not private. We get a fixed budget for local services from the government.

“We pay for staff, and patients. We do not generate profit for shareholders. We do have shareholders, we do not pay them dividends.

“There’s a world of difference between a local GP and an American corporation that has no idea what it is like to live in Britain, or the people we look after.”

She said the “letter before action” had been sent to NCL and the Tribune has seen emails relating to the legal bid.

TUC rep George Binette said: “I speak as an American citizen, to sound a warning bell. Centene has extended across the whole of the US. It’s only reason it is interested in GP surgeries here must surely be profit.

“We’re here to oppose Operose muscling in on the NHS. Ultimately it will open the door to further privatisation.”

Operose has strongly denied it will make any cuts and said that patients will not notice the difference in service following the takeover.

Mr Corbyn said: “If we don’t defend our NHS, it simply won’t be there anymore. And we will go on fighting until hell freezes over.”

Operose directors did not come out to speak to protesters. But a company statement said: “We have followed all the required regulatory procedures, including obtaining consent from our CCGs. As a provider of NHS services, care remains free at the point of delivery. In addition, and as with all other GP services throughout the country, we will continue to be regulated and inspected by the Care Quality Commission.”