IN an alarming twist in the spiral of NHS privatisation, 49 GP surgeries serving 375,000 patients in 18 London boroughs are being taken over by Centene, a giant health insurance corporation which stands accused in the US courts of failing to provide adequate health provision, underpaying medical staff and conspiring to fleece taxpayers out of millions of dollars.

The GP practices affected include the St Ann’s Road Surgery, which is in the ward I represent on Haringey Council.

The ownership and control of GP practices by large private-sector companies is not new. Although it has been continued and entrenched by subsequent Tory administrations, it was the Blair and Brown Labour government, eager to expand the role of the market in healthcare, which opened up the NHS general practice sector to the profit motive and commercial operations in 2004.