East London health surgeries for sale.

“Thirteen years of Tory government have led us to the point where primary health care is on its knees with services outsourced to corporations whose main interest is the bottom line profit”-Jon Cruddas MP

Local democracy reporter Josh Mellor today writes:

An American healthcare corporation is yet to confirm whether it has sold its chain of GP surgeries, including seven in East London, months after putting them up for sale.

In August this year, US medical insurance giant Centene announced it planned to sell Operose Health, a company that owns nearly 60 NHS GP practices.

At the time, the Financial Times reported that a deal was expected “before Christmas,” but Centene and Operose have not responded to requests for further details of the sale.

The chain of surgeries includes The Loxford Surgery in Ilford, five others across East London and a surgery in Barking run under a short-term “caretaking” contract.

Centene reportedly struggled to make the profit it hoped to from managing the surgeries.

Operose Health has told NHS North East London, which commissions and monitors NHS services at the surgeries, that its ownership is “under review”. 

However, NHS North East London told the Local Democracy Reporting Service there is “no transfer planned at present”.

They added: “Operose Health has given us reassurances that this will not impact on its day-to-day operations, or its ability and commitment to delivering high quality patient care, and that it will continue to meet all contractual obligations. 

“We have made clear to Operose Health our expectations and the requirements of their contracts during this process, and they will continue to keep us informed.”

They did not respond directly when asked whether they would make patients aware ahead of any future transfer of ownership.

A spokesperson for Operose Health said it has “nothing else to contribute” following the Financial Times article and Centene has not responded to repeated requests for comment.

Centene’s ownership of a large number of NHS surgeries has prompted concerns about “privatisation” of UK health services amongst campaigners. 

NHS North Central London’s decision to approve Centene’s takeover of 37 London GP surgeries, including The Loxford Surgery, resulted in an unsuccessful High Court challenge of NHS decision-making last year.

Carol Saunders, of North East London Save Our NHS said: “It’s outrageous that after taking over 38 surgeries two years ago, this US health giant is now hightailing it back to the States, because they can’t make enough profit here.

“What more proof do we need that these short-term commercial contracts have no place in our NHS and aren’t in the interests of patients?

“Our primary care commissioners now have to put things right. We can’t stress enough that they can’t just hand over control of these NHS contracts to the next buyer.

“They have to consult patients, talk to neighbouring practices and get the best GP-led solution for each of these surgeries.”

NHS Northeast London is a local health body which took over overseeing health services for the whole of East London in July 2022. 

When it formed in July last year, it stopped publishing documents showing its decision-making about commissioning GP services.

Although commissioning reports were regularly published by its predecessor and are still public in other parts of the country, it has refused to release them on the grounds that they are “commercially sensitive”.

Jon Cruddas, MP for Dagenham and Rainham, said: “This is entirely the wrong direction for the NHS and GP services to be taking.

“Thirteen years of Tory government have led us to the point where primary health care is on its knees with services outsourced to corporations whose main interest is the bottom line profit.

“The British public will never forgive this government for taking us down the route of an American-style two-tier crumbling health service.”

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