Virgin Plans To Coordinate GP Care Across Country, UK

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 10 Mar 2010 - 9:00 PDT

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Sir Richard Branson's Virgin empire plans to use its newly acquired network of polyclinics to co-ordinate GP services across the country, Pulse can reveal.

Virgin Healthcare told Pulse its acquisition of Assura Medical Ltd last week had given it control of 15 'GP-led health centres' and a total of 30 GP companies - believed to make it the biggest private provider of GP services in the country.

And the company - now a corporate partner of more than 1,500 GPs - revealed it wants to play a key role in running local health economies, by setting up collaborative networks of GPs called 'polysystems'. These could potentially involve thousands of GPs.

Richard Burrell, chief executive of Assura and a member of the new Virgin Healthcare board, said the company's network of GP-led health centres had already begun to play a key role in restructuring services.

'You can call them polysystems or federations, but what GPs need is help in that corporate structure and Virgin is a company with the money and the experience to do it,' he said.

'The NHS is under huge financial pressure and it makes very little sense to have hospitals where patients can't park, when these services could be provided by companies like us closer to their homes for less.'

Virgin's stake is now far bigger than its original gradual rollout of surgeries had envisaged and confidence among private healthcare providers is higher than in any other industry sector, according to corporate bank Santander.

But the rise of private firms has alarmed those who back the BMA's campaign to stop further privatisation. Pulse's Manifesto for General Practice also calls for politicians to put the brakes on expansion of the private sector in the NHS, after our survey of almost 900 GPs found 67% thought private provision was a threat to the quality of care.

Dr Mike Betterton, a GP in Cleveland, said: 'During the polyclinic consultation, local practices produced a patient leaflet [then health secretary] Alan Johnson regarded as "scurrilous" because it said the proposals would eventually force doctors to work for big companies like Tesco or Virgin. We were told at the time it "bordered on hysteria".'

Richard Hoey, editor of Pulse, said: 'The Government's plans for a national network of polyclinics always looked like they had been purpose built for the private sector, for all the denials from ministers, and so it is now proving.

'If the Government wants a mandate for increased private provision of NHS services, it must be honest about its intentions, so patients can give their response in consultations and at the ballot box. What just won't do is a programme of privatisation by stealth.'

Source
Pulse

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