Healthcare firm labelled a ‘vampire’ after taking legal action against NHS

Circle Healthcare, one of England’s largest private healthcare organisations has been labelled as a “vampire” firm by unions after it was revealed it is suing the NHS after losing the contract to run Nottingham Treatment Centre, which it has operated for 11 years.

Circle Nottingham and Rushcliffe Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are involved in a legal battle after the CCG chose Nottingham University Hospitals Trust as its preferred bidder for running non-emergency services at Nottingham Treatment Centre for the next five years.

A spokesman for Circle Health said: “We believe the continuity of quality services at the Nottingham Treatment Centre is at risk following a flawed procurement.

“The local health care system is already under significant pressure and unrealistic proposed savings are not in patients’ interests.

“We remain committed to the continuation of sustainable, high-quality services which we have been providing to Nottingham patients for the past 11 years.

“Circle are currently treating approximately 72,000 patients, including those with complex cancer pathways, and we do not want to see this jeopardised by short-term closures or service disruption.

“The commissioners have recognised that any transfer to another operator would require a minimum of seven months.

“We have offered to continue services with the commissioners on the current basis to ensure patient and staff continuity, while the background dispute is resolved.

“We are incredibly proud of the services we have provided at the Treatment Centre for the past 11 years and we are widely recognised as having a talented, dedicated and caring team who deliver the highest quality treatment to Nottingham patients and will continue to do so while we await the outcome of our challenge.”

The UNISON union says it would welcome the service’s return to public hands enabling it to return to a National Centre of Excellence once more – a status lost when dermatology services were contracted out to Circle in 2012. This was branded “an unmitigated disaster” in a subsequent independent review.

UNISON regional officer Dave Ratchford said: “This isn’t rocket science. Circle and all of the other would-be private providers are out to make a profit – that is their incentive as a private business.

“But public services that are provided on an ongoing basis can’t be provided more effectively by a private operator. It is far more effectively to run them in-house allowing proper planning and investment on a long-term basis. Then any surplus that a public service makes should get ploughed back into the public purse, not into the pockets of shareholders.”

Circle has denied that it is no longer a Centre of Excellence. A spokesperson told TheBusinessDesk.com:  “In 2012, with the support of commissioners and our clinicians, we embarked on a transformation of the dermatology service due to increasing demand and lack of skilled practitioners in the UK. We are now widely recognised as running one of the most effective dermatology departments in the country and as a centre of clinical excellence.

“Our innovative teledermatology service gives GPs the ability to take dermatoscope photographs and send them electronically to a specialist. This means patients can get a diagnosis within 48 hours of seeing their GP, and fast-tracks the care of skin cancer patients.”