NHS board rejects private GP bid

Some fear it may be harder to see a GP at a privately run practice

NHS Lanarkshire has decided not to award a contract to run a GP surgery to a private healthcare company.

The health board received a bid from at least one private company to run the surgery in Harthill.

Locals campaigned against private sector involvement and the health board announced that one of the incumbent GPs will take over the practice.

If it had been successful, the surgery would have been the first practice in Scotland to be run privately.

NHS Lanarkshire, which invited bids for the contract in October, is the second health board to put the service out to tender since a change in legislation.

Several NHS services in England are run by private companies, though the practice is considered controversial.

In Cornwall, some people claim they have had problems seeing a doctor since the private company, Serco, took over out of hours care.

The same company was understood to have bid to run the GP practice in the former mining community of Harthill.