Operose Health accused of prioritising profit before patient safety

 

My GP practice which is privately owned by Partners, uses 'Nursing Practitioners' to see patients as well as GP's. The practice stopped having walk-in surgeries at the beginning of the COVID epidemic in March 2020. Everything is now done through a triage system. I recently rang the practice and the receptionist asked if I was prepared to see someone other than a doctor. I gather that this is becoming increasingly common at many GP practices. Remote consultations by telephone are also becoming more common as they replace face-to-face appointments.

Operose Health, is a UK subsidiary of the U.S. health insurance group the Centene Corporation. It now runs 70 surgeries with nearly 600,000 patients making it the biggest GP provider in the NHS. An undercover investigation by BBC Panorama, has found that the company uses less qualified staff known as 'Physician Associate', to see patients rather than doctors, without adequate supervision. Former Operose employees who spoke to Panorama - a dozen doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other staff - said they believed patient safety were being put at risk by prioritsing profit before patient safety.