US health giant, Centene, operating under the name of AT Medics/Operose has operated 6 surgeries since 2021.

By Aidan White

A hand holds medical paraphernalia — Photo by Nappy on Unsplash

A multi-billion dollar United States health corporation which controversially bought into a network of doctors’ surgeries in London, including several in Newham, has decided to quit the UK.

Just two years ago the company’s expansion into GP work and hospitals provoked local protests.

The move involved six GP practices in Newham (including the Carpenters’ Practice at sites in Stratford High Street, St Lukes in Canning Town and Lucas Avenue in Plaistow). They were taken over by the US health giant, Centene, operating under the name of AT Medics/Operose.

The purchase of GP surgeries in 2021 faced court challenges by anti-privatisation campaigners who warned it was a sign of the increasing privatisation of the NHS.

But although they won the legal fight Centene has found it difficult to make sufficient profit from its UK investments. The locations in poorer urban areas are not close enough to private hospitals and, according to experts, they have not been able to attract doctors.

“Centene has found it difficult to make Operose profitable because many Operose sites are in generally less affluent areas where recruiting GPs has been difficult,” said Victor Chua of Mansfield Advisors, a healthcare consultancy.

Centene has now announced its intention to walk away from the contracts it reached to run these doctors’ surgeries.

Alan Cooper, Chair, Newham Save Our NHS, told Newham Voices the takeover of these contracts in 2021 went ahead despite local concerns and questions in Parliament and national media at the time including a BBC Panorama programme highlighting poor practice at one surgery run by the company.

“All of these doubts were cast aside in favour of Centene’s interests,” says Cooper. “Yet now, just over two years later, we learn that the company is walking away not just from our surgeries but, apparently, the whole UK ‘healthcare market.”

He says campaigners are asking the North East London Integrated Care Board – the responsible NHS commissioning body – to finally accept that granting multiple contracts to large foreign players “poses a serious risk for the stability and quality of our local health system.”

In a letter sent to the Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz and local MPs Lyn Brown and Stephen Timms, campaigners say that Centene’s actions prove that the use of Alternative Provider Medical Services, which grant opportunities for private companies, including US health giants and large healthcare chains, to win NHS contracts is unacceptable.
They are calling on the Integrated Care Board to consult with the local authorities and the community over future arrangements for the local surgeries.

“We insist that any decision-making is transparent – ‘commercial sensitivity’ must not be allowed to take precedence over the health needs of our local communities,” says Cooper in the letter to local leaders.

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