Helen Salisbury: Does it matter who owns general practice?

Alarm has been voiced about Operose Health purchasing 37 general practices in London across 49 sites and whether this represents further “privatisation of the NHS by stealth.”12 Operose is the UK subsidiary of Centene, a multi-billion dollar US corporation whose main business is health insurance. However, some suggest that there’s no need for concern, as GP surgeries are already privately owned.

It’s true that general practices are run as businesses. This is because, at the founding of the NHS, most GPs worked as individuals from their own homes, and it …