THE true extent to which our NHS has already been privatised is shown by this capture (below) from the public record of Company House on our local surgery.
It is useful in showing exactly who our GPs are but the more so for showing us how the company they form operates. Each of them is not an employee of us or of our NHS but a director of the company that is paid by us to deliver the services we get from the Elizabeth Courtauld surgery. This structure was a gift from the then health minister and one time GP (!) Andrew Landsley.
They of course own shares in that company and its shareholder worth is £1.96million (most recent data).
This also show £2.25million cash in the bank – I assume this is a rolling credit from the tax payments made to the company to deliver our health services.
The company they form is Elizabeth Courtauld Medical Ltd – Halstead.
But that company is headed by one doctor who is also the only director of a further company, Kreis Medical Limited – Halstead. She owns all the equity in that and has the following rights: Ownership of shares - 75 to 100 percent; Voting rights - 75 to 100 percent; Right to appoint and remove directors.
It appears that the doctors who serve us are chosen, empowered and controlled by one person but I may be wrong.
They get their money from the Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group which is (a la Landsley) a GP run committee (thus paying themselves) which draws it funds from some Essex (or uber) authority which may yet be some way off (and managerial costs) from the NHS itself.
You may be inclined to call this process a gravy train. Whatever, that is our money they are playing with.
There is lots more to be found but I find none of it comforting. It seems to me that we no longer have the GP service that was promised under the NHS acts and that what we now get is just a socially aware private service that could be changed or withdrawn at any time.
Company report: https://www.companiesintheuk.co.uk/ltd/elizabeth-courtauld-medical
http://www.checkcompany.co.uk/company/11508236/KREIS-MEDICAL-LIMITED
