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GP TAKEOVER ON THE WAY?
Concerns as US healthcare giant launches ‘feasibility study’
DOCTORS claim a giant American firm is poised to seize control of health services in Westminster.
Their fears follow a decision by health chiefs to hire the private operators UnitedHealth to develop a plan for a polyclinic, the supersized health centres set to replace some of the borough’s GP surgeries.
The company – the European arm of America’s largest health provider – is conducting a feasibility study for Westminster Primary Care Trust (PCT) to look at whether super surgeries are appropriate.
While doctors and health campaigners are sympathetic to the principles of polyclinics – the plan is to bring hospital outpatients and GP services under one roof – the way they will be run is still a moot point, with growing fears they will be controlled by the private companies.
Dr Ruth O’Hare, a partner at the Connaught Square Practice and representing Westminster doctors as chairman of the borough’s branch of London Medical Committees, said: “Westminster PCT is paying UnitedHealth to carry out a feasibility study for polyclinics in Westminster.
“There is some local concern because as a private corporate provider they might bid when the contracts go out for tender.
“There was initial comment from the PCT ?that they would be precluded from bidding. But this is actually not NHS guidance.
“NHS guidance says companies cannot be precluded from bidding under EU law.”
UnitedHealth was last month selected as the preferred supplier by the Department of Health to help PCTs provide
services.
The firm already runs three surgeries in neighbouring Camden – and one in Derby.
Its arrival across the Atlantic has been met by a wave of protest, with health campaigners claiming services will be affected by the use of a company accountable to its shareholders, not patients.
In Camden, local
doctors were out-bid by UnitedHealth.
Dr Nazeer Ahmed, partner at the Queen’s Park medical centre in Dart Street, has warned the PCT that hiring UnitedHealth is “inappropriate” owing to the “unfair advantage” it would give the firm in any future tendering process.
But a PCT spokeswoman said UnitedHealth had been warned that by undertaking the report it may be made ineligible for bidding for the polyclinic contracts.
She said: “As Westminster Primary Care Trust published in its commissioning strategy plan last year, we are carrying out a feasibility study to see how a ‘polyclinic’ model of service, either networked or same site, could be developed in Westminster.
“The PCT has commissioned UnitedHealth UK to provide support in undertaking this study, particularly around identifying predicted future demand for healthcare services.” |
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