The private company Serco has admitted that it gave false data 252 times about how it was performing when handling GP out of hours services for a local NHS trust.

The admission came as the primary care trust, NHS Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, which has a contract with the company, acknowledged that Serco had passed on false information but added that it still considered the company to be safe and effective overall.

A local MP and the NHS regulator the Care Quality Commission have both said, however, that the situation must still be monitored to ensure that concerns about the service being provided are no longer a problem.

The trust published a report on 20 September containing an independent clinical review by the former national clinical director for primary care, David Colin-Thomé.1 …