Stephen Morgan MP has written to NHS Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group to raise concerns about the takeover of GP services.
Across the UK, 70 GP services have been taken over by the American healthcare organisation Centene, making them the largest provider of NHS Primary Care services in the UK, raising concerns that the company is profiting from providing NHS services.
In the Portsmouth representative’s letter, he underlined a wide range of reasons for why the company would not be fit to provide local health services, including how in 2018, “the company was implicated in the profit-motivated closure of Osler House GP surgery in Harlow, Essex.”
He also said that “Centene Corporation has a long record of fraud” and that it “has had to pay over $800 million in penalties since 2000 for 170 different fraud offenses.”
The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, commented:
“I’m hearing more and more from constituents about the challenge of seeing their GP and the time it takes to receive the care they need, which is why it is a priority of mine to tackle this in Portsmouth.
“What we are also seeing elsewhere in the country is worrying. Letting private companies increase their profits will harm patients, families, and our local area.
“That is why I have written to our local CCG to ask them that patients, families, and our local area are put first, and will continue to raise our city’s concerns in Parliament”.
