Healthcare provider Virgin Care has been forcing patients to attend extra appointments to boost profits, says former employee and the Labour MP for Dewsbury, Paula Sherriff.
Speaking in the House of Commons, where she had been granted the first question to the prime minister, and where her words were protected by parliamentary privilege, Sherriff accused Virgin Care of insisting on, “extra consultations before surgery, boosting their profits at the expense of the taxpayer, and patient safety”.
Before she stood for parliament, Sherriff worked in Virgin Care’s dermatology service, in West Yorkshire. She claims patients were obliged to book a second, follow-up appointment before receiving treatment – for a suspect mole, for example – when the NHS would previously have carried out the same work in a single booking.
She told the prime minister this was “amongst many unethical practices” she had witnessed. The process of “double appointments” allows Virgin Care to levy the £100 to £150 appointment fee from the NHS twice, Sherriff said.
The MP, who has made a name for herself in her short time in parliament by campaigning against the so-called “tampon tax” on sanitary products, believes the outsourcing of NHS work increases costs, and produces worse outcomes for patients.
Virgin Care, which is part of the Virgin Group, has the contracts to carry out over 230 NHS and social care services, from running GPs’ surgeries to providing healthcare in prisons. Virgin bought up private healthcare provider Assura Medical in 2010 to capitalise on the fast-growing market in healthcare.
The prime minister replied that it was the last Labour government, not the Conservatives, that had significantly increased privatisation in the NHS.
Patients forced to make appointments to boost profits, says Labour MP
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