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Respect party members protest the ‘faceless attack’ on the NHS on Camden High Street on Saturday |
‘We don’t want United Health’
Patients urge PCT to freeze talks with US firm after hearing surgery contract is yet to be signed
UNITED Health, the American-owned company set to take over three of Camden’s doctors surgeries, was drawn into the thick of the fight on Monday night when patients gave them the simple but stark message: “We don’t want you here.”
Fierce criticism was also levelled at the Camden Primary Care Trust, whose decision to hire the company is at the centre of the controversy and could yet be overturned in the High Court.
Tension boiled over at a meeting of the PCT’s board as patients were invited to ask members questions at its headquarters at St Pancras Hospital in Somers Town.
More than once chairman John Carrier threatened to adjourn the debate because of heckling and sarcastic laughter, loudest when it was suggested by the board that the move did not represent privatisation.
There was angry shouting when it emerged that the American arm of the company is being investigated for fraud (see box below).
The meeting was the first time United Health’s senior figures have appeared before objectors since seizing three potentially lucrative contracts last month.
Dr Peter Smith, a United Health director, and Tony Sampson, head of external operations, must have left with warning bells ringing in their ears ahead of the company’s takeover of the Brunswick Medical Centre in Bloomsbury, the Camden Road Surgery and the King’s Cross Road Surgery.
The meeting heard that while United Health has emerged as the winning bidder, the fine detail of the contract is still being finalised and yet to be signed, leading to calls for an immediate freeze on negotiations due to the unrest.
A section of surgery regulars insisted they had not been aware of a consultation period, a point likely to be made in any application for a judicial review.
Dr Smith said: “We are looking for a continuity in the service. We are not replacing the GPs with Americans. We are part of United Health but this arm of the company is based in the UK, working within the NHS for the NHS.”
He said United Health would improve services for diabetic patients and look at opening hours.
Mr Sampson did not comment on the fraud allegations faced by the parent company, adding: “The way things are done in the United States is different from here, with health insurance. It is a totally different way of working.”
Barbara Saunders, a champion among the protesters for her defiant call to see the PCT in the High Court, first revealed in the New Journal last month, said: “We are happy with the service we already have at the Brunswick – we don’t see why it has to be changed. I wasn’t told about these proposed changes.”
Ruth Ingram, a patient at the Camden Road Surgery, said: “This is a private company with shareholders, which means the doctors will have to think about what the shareholders want and not just about their professional judgment.”
The PCT is confident that if United Health do not come up to scratch it could simply tear up the contract but objectors fear the company is just trying to get a “toe-hold” in Camden or London as a whole, willing to run the service as a “loss leader”.
Candy Udwin, who lives in Somers Town, said: “They say it is not privatisation but this is a private company making profit here and there is no place for that in the NHS.”
Dr Wendy Abrahams, from Camden Road Surgery, said some doctors had already resigned.
She said: “I want to be part of the National Health Service with an NHS pension. I don’t want to work for a private company.”
She said she and colleagues had spent hours on their own bid but could not compete with the financial muscle of United Health.
“We put in an expensive bid because we want to spend the money needed to give a good service,” she told the meeting.
Dr Stephen Graham, who has worked at the Brunswick Medical Centre for the past 12 months, said the PCT needed to monitor where United Health “injected” more money into the service in the future.
Otherwise, he said the bidding process wouldn’t have been conducted on a “level playing field”.
It is rumoured that United Health’s bid undercut those submitted by local doctors by as much as 30 per cent.
Jo Shaw, the Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for the area, added: “ The momentum is with the PCT and United Health agreeing the final bits of the contract and we must put the brakes on that.”
Mr Carrier said he could not make any instant promises or guarantees about future action but pledged to review minutes of the meeting.
He said: “We will look at what has been said and see what we can do to address your concerns.”
PCT chief executive Rob Larkman said he would be happy signing up to the service himself.
“We are confident that we have come to this decision through a rigorous process,” he added.
But he refused to disclose information on how the PCT chose United Health amid revelations that it did not score highest in all the categories that it was assessed on.
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