Stop the sell-off of 49 NHS GP practices to American health insurance giant.

Perhaps it's a bit ironic that GPs wanted to remain 'independent' when the NHS was set up.

Even more serious was the opposition of doctors who disliked the idea of becoming employees of the state. Doctors were in an extremely powerful position, as without them the National Health Service (NHS) could not operate, and the government was forced to make a number of compromises. General Practitioner (GP) surgeries remained private businesses that could be bought and sold, and the NHS effectively gave these practices contracts to provide health care. Only the most senior doctors in hospitals (consultants) were allowed to continue private treatment. Similar compromises were worked out with dentists. Aneurin Bevan conceded these points in order to make the NHS work, but he was not happy with them.

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/alevelstudies/origins-nhs.htm

From the article ja posted;

the government has spectacularly failed to deliver its promise of an extra 5,000 GPs.

Perhaps this also has something to do with the problem? Tories have had 10 years to do something about this...

The NHS should be wholly owned by the UK government on behalf of the people. It is an organisation that is there for the public good and it should not be sold piecemeal to private investors who simply see it as another investment to earn dividends from. Any money that the NHS has should be ploughed back into it's services and not go into some investors pocket. Sick people should never be seen as a financially attractive commodity.

Doctors have to be opened to bids from the private sector. They don't have a choice.

"Last month, it emerged that NHS England has said that, because of competition law, all new GP contracts will have to be opened up to bids from the profit-making, private corporate sector. And - whilst struggling under funding cuts - they will have to fight off the private sector to keep their practice every 5 years. They will all be forced into contracts as ‘Alternative Providers of Medical Services’. This was a new concept introduced by New Labour in 2004. It allowed contracts to be held by the private sector, including by non-GPs. It gave companies like Virgin and Care UK a foothold in general practice, though hiding behind the NHS logo. It was a defining moment for general practice and many feel the BMA GP Committee should have resisted it harder. "
www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/gps-arent-private-companies-but-private-takeover-is-nearing/

janeainsworth

VQ No one should be able to financially benefit from people being ill

Every single healthcare provider, whether they work for the NHS, a private company, or self employed, whether they’re a consultant, a physiotherapist, a nurse or a ward cleaner, benefits financially from people being ill, in just the same way as hairdressers benefit financially from people wanting their hair cut or plumbers do from people wanting their drains unblocking.
How else do you expect people to live, other than by earning money?
This article explains why GPs are less likely to want to own their own practices these days. So perhaps blame the system if you want to blame anyone.
Someone has to own practices, or there wouldn’t be any and we would all lose out.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/08/gp-nationalise-surgeries-profit-patients-nhs

I'm not talking about Drs, nurses etc. They work in order to help people. I'm talking about the shareholders who sit back and do nothing other than take their dividends. That's the profiting from illness that shouldn't be allowed.

Maizie There's a world of difference between people earning money by working and companies aiming to make a profit from providing a public service such as the NHS

I absolutely agree, which is why I said in my first post that I don't advocate or approve of medical (and dental) practices being sold to corporate bodies aka businesses.

But questions do remain as to why GPs increasingly don't want to own and control their own practices.
Underfunding is certainly a problem but it's more than that.
Compared with the idealistic days of the late 40's and 50's when the NHS was founded, there are many more burdens on practice owners in terms of governance. employment law, meeting targets etc in addition to the core work of clinical practice, and many more GPs are concerned about work-life balance and choose to work part-time as salaried employees, rather than take the financial risk.

The article I linked to previously recommends that the NHS buys out GP practices. But sometimes we have to be careful what we wish for. That could come with as many financial drivers as private ownership does.

How else do you expect people to live, other than by earning money?

There's a world of difference between people earning money by working and companies aiming to make a profit from providing a public service such as the NHS. It goes against the whole ethos of the NHS which was set up by a government which believed that it had a duty to keep the population healthy by not limiting access to health care to those who could afford to pay for it.

As all public services offer plenty of opportunity to private enterprises to profit from the supply of resources to the services (as the state doesn't make any resources) there is no need for giving them further opportunities to profit from the supply of the service itself. It seems obvious to me that a private enterprise that naturally has profit as its sole objective will make commercial decisions about its provision of services which don't coincide with the needs of the community it is meant to serve. Such as closing unprofitable GP surgeries...

I'd be all for it if I thought you'd get top notch service to go with it because as it stands I'm disillusioned by the 7 minute consultation instead of an in-depth conversation about different health aspects. I don't do the " one thing at a time " when it comes to health as one thing could be connected to ill health of the whole body and I believe in getting to the heart of the matter rather than skirting around the edges.

This has been mentioned in the past on GN - I knew about it.
The main concern is that these rich american inurance/ pharma. companies will eventually try to convert patients to a form of private medical insurance, as in the US.
So our 'free' NHS membership will be eroded.

It’s not just privatization it’s the way everything is split up into health trusts which causes massive administration problems and a great variation in management ability, not to mention perpetual reorganisation.

Our practice has - I hope - protected itself by joining with three other practices in three local communities to form a mega-practice which has, so far, worked brilliantly by creating a highly efficient local hub for covid vaccinations. It's a solution well suited, I believe, for practices in villages and small towns in a semi-rural situation.

vampirequeen

Medical care should never be run by a 'for profit' organisation. No one should be able to financially benefit from people being ill. It's a disgrace and shows once more that this government can't be trusted. I doubt they'd recognise the truth if it came up and slapped them in the face.

Well Said vampirequeen

The NHS was doing very well before the underfunding started There should no privatisation.

VQ No one should be able to financially benefit from people being ill

Every single healthcare provider, whether they work for the NHS, a private company, or self employed, whether they’re a consultant, a physiotherapist, a nurse or a ward cleaner, benefits financially from people being ill, in just the same way as hairdressers benefit financially from people wanting their hair cut or plumbers do from people wanting their drains unblocking.
How else do you expect people to live, other than by earning money?
This article explains why GPs are less likely to want to own their own practices these days. So perhaps blame the system if you want to blame anyone.
Someone has to own practices, or there wouldn’t be any and we would all lose out.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/08/gp-nationalise-surgeries-profit-patients-nhs

Janeainsworth. You are quite right GP surgeries are privately owned businesses and they can sell to whom they like. This has been going on for sometime since APMS (Alternative Provider of Medical Services) Contracts were introduced by New Labour in 2004.

Virgin Group operate at least 350 surgeries so presumably the latest shock/horror with the 49 GP surgeries is that they are being bought by an American Company and one renowned for pushing prices at that.

I don’t want to get political here as both Labour and Conservatives have a lot to answer for in all of this apart from originally and continually our GP’s themselves. I think there were a lot of ‘flaws’ when the NHS was set up allowing private practice to continue as the only means of getting doctors and consultants on board.

How can we stop it now it has evolved so far over the years, almost without our knowing. The 49 surgeries are the tip of the iceberg.

CP practices are not businesses in the generally accepted sense of the word. I suggest you read the article that this quote comes from. It's written by a GP. Both the Tories and New Labour are responsible for this NHS sell out. Both these groups put profits before people. They don't care if a short term gain for themselves or their mates is in reality a long term loss for the rest of us.

"It is true that GPs are self employed and have been since 1948. They often own the GP surgery that they work from and the NHS pays the GPs to allow them to employ the staff, pay for the electricity and lighting in the surgery and take home their own income too. GPs do earn a good income.

But the vast majority earn nowhere near the telephone number salaries the Daily Mail talk about. But GPs cannot sell or advertise our surgeries or set up a practice wherever we like. "

www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/gps-arent-private-companies-but-private-takeover-is-nearing/

janeainsworth you are totally correct.

GP's own their practices and have been running them as businesses for many years. When they retire or want to move on it is down to them who they sell it to, however unpalatable this seems.

Beggars belief that the GP ‘s themselves are prepared to sell out! Nothing to do with the government. Wonder what their patients think? Are we even called patients these days?

Medical care should never be run by a 'for profit' organisation. No one should be able to financially benefit from people being ill. It's a disgrace and shows once more that this government can't be trusted. I doubt they'd recognise the truth if it came up and slapped them in the face.

“Apart from Tory bashing this highlights the fact that so many former U.K. companies are being taken over by overseas companies, which is a worry.”

A great many companies are already overseas owned, not many are wholly UK owned these days. My GP practice is independant but I have no idea who actually “owns” it, there is a list of doctors at the entrance how many are directors or partners is not mentioned.

They do however provide a very good service and in normal times you can always see a doctor same day.

Our practice couldn’t get any worse.

Centene bought out the original operating company of some surgeries, at the time the surgeries were being run at a loss.
Maybe we will get more Doctors at our surgeries, operating at hours that suit the patients? Or even more surgeries being built? Or maybe that is just a dream......

The NHS as we all knew it back in the day, has to change. IMO Means Testing will ensure that those who can’t afford private health insurance will get free healthcare and the rest will have to use their Insurance,(taken directly from their salaries as they do in Germany). This will also ensure that foreign visitors have to be pay to be treated and , hopefully, stop the A & E being full of drunks at weekends.

Apart from Tory bashing this highlights the fact that so many former U.K. companies are being taken over by overseas companies, which is a worry.

Read this yesterday. Signed.. This government can't be trusted.

Before these new acquisitions Operose Health, Centene’s UK subsidiary, was already running GP practices in Nottingham, Milton Keynes, Luton, Birmingham, etc. totalling 21 surgeries and practices.

The thing is, ‘we’ don’t own GP practices.
GPs do.
As with any business, the owners are free to sell the business to whoever they like.
(I’m not advocating selling practices to corporate bodies whether they American, British or anything else by the way.)

DH discovered that his practice had been taken over by a private group. That's in Scotland a couple of years ago.

This link works I hope

weownit.org.uk/act-now/stop-sell-49-gp-practices