Operose Health – a subsidiary of US healthcare giant the Centene Corporation, which provides health insurance to around 25m Americans – is expanding its portfolio of NHS GP practices to 58 through a ‘partnership’ with major primary care provider AT Medics. Effectively it allows Operose Health to takeover AT Medics.
Operose Health already ran 21 NHS GP practices, spread from south-east England to the Midlands and north of England – and will nearly triple this figure through the deal with AT Medics. Its existing practices covered around 120,000 patients
The trojan horse for this takeover is a form of general practice contract called Alternative Providers Medical Services (APMS) contracts. These contracts allow for a commercial tendering process to take place which provides the open door through which for profit corporate bodies can take over the running of the practices on offer.
The takeover of AT Medics has attracted a lot of scrutiny and debate right across the Labour Movement and within healthcare professional groups. This includes the Labour Party Leader, Sir Keir Starmer. In writing to the the Accountable Officer at NHS North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group Sir Keir stated “Like many people in our community, I want our local health service to be accountable and transparent.” and he asked for greater clarity on how the who Operose takeover took place.
The APMS contracts only operate in England. SHA – Cymru has written to Labour Senedd Members drawing their attention to the risks of going down the APMS route.
Some further information on the campaign against the corporate take over of English general practice can be found here.