Britain’s largest chain of GP practices has been accused of putting profits ahead of proper care by hiring staff who are not fully qualified family doctors to assess patients.
An investigation by the BBC’s Panorama program found that Operose Health used medical staff to make appointments because they were cheaper to hire than GPs.
An undercover Panorama reporter also revealed that in the practice of Operose GP in London, where she worked as a receptionist, there was a serious shortage of general practitioners and a backlog of clinical correspondence – medical reports, test results and hospital letters – that had not been read. by the end of six months.
The revelations prompted one of the NHS’s top general practitioners, Prof. Sir Sam Everington, to express concern about the “huge risk” to patient safety and to accuse the US company of profitability.
Operose manages 70 therapeutic operations in England, including 600,000 patients.
In a broadcast Monday, Panorama said associate doctors in unnamed surgery told reporter Jackie Wakefield how they actually do the same job as GPs, even though they have much less training and experience.
They are designed to be closely monitored by family physicians to ensure that patients receive high quality care. But one told Panorama: “You get used to being a general practitioner” and that “sometimes I hardly see a general practitioner; when I started, it was more, now I hardly talk to them. “
After looking at the Panorama footage, Everington said he was worried that the doctors’ staff had said they were not receiving the necessary monitoring. “They articulate it clearly, but they don’t understand it. And that’s a problem. “
Regarding the delay in medical correspondence, Everington said: “If a letter to the GP is not taken within six months, it is a huge risk for patients, both in terms of developing a more serious disease and dying earlier ”
He called on ministers to ask the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to investigate the management of the operation by Operose, which is owned by US-based private health firm Centene. “They put profits, money before the quality of care. And that will have an impact. “
Wes Street, the shadow health secretary, also called for an urgent investigation. “The Conservatives have broken their promise to hire thousands more GPs, but operations cannot be allowed to compromise on the quality of care as a result,” he said.
Panorama claims that Operose conducts operations with six times as many associate doctors and half as fully qualified general practitioners than the NHS average.
The company denied Panorama’s claims, including claiming profits for patients. He said 97% of his practices were rated “good” or “exceptional” by the CQC. He said he had increased the number of GPs working in London and had recruited 38 GPs in his portfolio of surgeries in the past year, and had hired another 12. Patients had received safe care, the statement said.
David Rowland, director of the Center for Health and the Brain Trust of the Public Interest, said: “How do you profit from a GP’s practice or someone’s treatment for cancer, while striving to keep costs as low as possible? This often means using fewer staff or less qualified staff with a potential impact on patient care.
“This healthcare model is completely at odds with the founding principles of the NHS, which seeks to isolate healthcare in the UK for profit.
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Dr Richard Van Melaerts of the British Medical Association said: “It is alarming to hear that Operose Health does not believe it is understaffed, although it is reported that their practices have many more GP patients. than the national average.
“It is extremely disturbing to hear reports that fellow doctors at Operose Health are being treated as equivalent to general practitioners and have worked without proper supervision.”
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