Commercialisation of GP surgeries “substantially understated”

Released 15/07/2010

Report finds private companies running more than 200 practices

The extent of commercialisation of GP services has been "substantially understated" according to a recent report that found private firms to be running over 200 GP surgeries and health centres across England.

A study by NHS Support Federation has found 23 commercial companies that between them run 227 GP surgeries and health centres.

These companies have often been described as "GP-led", which the report feels is "misleading as it suggests that they have a non-commercial focus...when in fact many of these companies have a profit-making intent and traditional corporate management structure".

The NHS Support Federation has found 18 examples of private companies that were started by groups of GPs but are now in the process of business expansion.

The report also found a small number of companies have a sizeable portfolio of NHS contracts - nine with 10 or more contracts to run GP health centres or surgeries.

It gives the example of Chilvers McCrea, described as a GP-led company, which runs 35 surgeries across the country. It found Care UK and Assura (currently selling to Virgin), both public companies, have the largest number of contracts to run the large health centres with 11 and 12 each.

The report said local GP practices are finding it "hard to afford to bid for contracts", which could lead local GP practices being "squeezed out as the NHS market matures".

It concluded the "complex structure of ownership" is making it difficult to track who controls the service and where public money is going.

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