Professor Sue Richards

FURIOUS health chiefs say they are considering next steps after a private firm dumped its contract to run a Westminster GP surgery onto another company without their approval.

The North Central London Integrated Care System – which is in charge of NHS funding – said the unauthorised “change in control” just after Christmas appeared to be a breach of contract.

The Extra reported in December that Operose Health, which was owned by Centene Corporation in the US, was seeking authorisation for a plan to transfer its contracts to another profit-seeking company.

But the NHS said this week the company had pushed ahead and rubber-stamped the changes without its say-so and before it could do its “due diligence”, and added: “Under the terms of the contracts, providers may not undergo a change of control without the NHS’s prior authorisation.”

Professor Sue Richards, a chair of Keep Our NHS Public (KONP), said: “Rather than waiting for the primary care committee of the ­inte­grated care board (ICB) to agree to this change of control, for which it needs to undertake due diligence first before it can agree, the change of ownership has gone ahead anyway. This has just been discovered by the body which manages the ICB’s contract for it and the proverbial is beginning to hit the fan.”

Operose Health Ltd, which is fully owned by the US health insurance giant Centene Corporation, took over running doctors’ surgeries at Randolph Surgery in Maida Vale.

On top of the Westminster NHS contracts, in north London, the same deal saw the firm seize control of more than 65 surgeries nationwide, making it the biggest single provider of GP services in the country.

The move – unknown to the public until it was revealed by the Extra’s sister paper the Camden New Journal – triggered a massive row about privatisation and the influence of US health care giants in the NHS. Patients had no say over the switch and therefore who would be running their surgeries.

KONP took North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group to the High Court over its decision to approve the transfer of surgeries to Operose, arguing patients were not consulted and there had not been enough consideration made to the role or financial position of the Centene Corporation in the US.

Profit-making companies are able to bid for NHS GP surgery contracts due to controversial legislation introduced by a Labour government more than 20 years ago, known as alternative medical provider services or AMPS.

But the rules state that the NHS must be given time to properly assess any new company taking over surgery contracts, including its “financial standing, ownership model, structures and governance, handling of patient data, proposed staffing and management changes and evidence of engagement with patients”.

We reported last year how Centene Corporation had signalled its intent to get out of the NHS market and was selling up its portfolio of GP practices in the UK, including its four in Camden and two in Islington.

It has sold the surgeries to T20 Osprey Midco Ltd, part of The HCRG Care Group, which took over NHS contracts held by Virgin Care, a company founded by the billionaire business magnate Sir Richard Branson.

An NHS statement said that “under the terms of the APMS contracts, providers may not undergo a change of control without the NHS’s prior authorisation”.

A spokesperson for HCRG Care Group said there had been “a change of ownership at the ultimate parent company” that was “an experienced provider in the health care sector”, and added: as the previous owners “required completion of the transaction”. And: “Patients will continue to be seen by the same practice teams and access care in the same way.”