To find it creepy that Serco, a big private sector organisation, has been given information about the status of my lady parts by my GP?

[BoffinMum]

So I open a letter inviting me for a cervical screening test, to find it has been sent to me by the large private sector organisation Serco in conjunction with the NHS (both logos at the top).

Which is creepy as I haven't given permission for Serco to have access to my medical records, date of birth, cervical screening status or in fact anything at all. In fact a couple of years ago I filled in a form opting out of any online information sharing whatsoever. Yet it seems they know an awful lot about my girl bottom status.

Being me, I immediately complained to the Department of Health and got the following response:

---

Our ref: xxxx

Dear Dr BoffinMum

Thank you for your correspondence of 23 September about your medical details. I have been asked to reply.

The Department of Health provides strategic leadership for the NHS in England. Patient records are the responsibility of individual NHS organisations, which are legally responsible for complying with data protection laws and should ensure that patient records are not put at risk. The Department of Health expects the NHS to comply fully with data protection laws, just like any other public body.

You should therefore raise your concerns directly with the practice manager at your GP surgery.

I am sorry that I cannot be more directly helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Ted Colegate
Ministerial Correspondence and Public Enquiries
Department of Health

-------------------

Please do not reply to this email. To contact the Department of Health, please visit the 'Contact DH' section on the GOV.UK website.

---

AIBU unreasonable to think that a letter with 'NHS' and 'Serco' plastered over the top should in fact be the responsibility of the DoH? And that it is well creepy to have your cervical screening status handed on to a private sector organisation without your knowledge or consent?

I am sure if Ted 'ring of freshness' Colgate had a cervix he would find this creepy too.

I understand what you're saying OP, but opting out if Serco having your details for things like that is effectively opting out of the NHS.

CCGs are putting contracts out to tender (including many private companies). Whichever private company gets the contract will be providing healthcare for the "NHS" - which doesn't actually exist anymore as it is being sold off in different parts.

In the coming year, for anyone who needs more than just a GP service, that will most likely be provided by a number of private companies.

e.g someone having a knee replacement. surgery done by one company; district nurse to remove clips employed by another company, physiotherapist employed by another; because the NHS is being sold off in chunks. 3 different private companies having your data, under the guise of the NHS.

I only started to notice Serco's name recently (through my DH who works on immigration issues). Now I come across them everywhere. Your vagina is only the most recent place.

Well done for writing the complaint letter.

PMSL

Apparently the Group Chief Executive is called Mr Hyman.
You could not make it up.

YY v creepy.

It's part of the wider political will of removing the 'national' from the NHS.
I have been glad many times over the last few years to be living and working in Scotland and the not-so-creeping privatisation of the healthservice is one of them .

TBH I go private for everything except GP services anyway, after my experiences of terrible care during pg which left me in a wheelchair for a year.

Do a google images search for 'colposcopy' and send Mr Hyman a picture of a nice cervix, claiming it to be yours

That is tempting.

Is there actually good reason for dismantling the NHS, or is it that companies bent the ear of successive ministers having scented a money making opportunity eluding them?

My landlady works for Serco. So does a parent governor at my DC's school. They both seem like lovely people. I have to resist the urge to ask them, "Do you know that you work for the enemy?" Because I just haven't found the right moment to transition into that topic from front door and school gate chitchat.

I suspect it's the latter. The same reason Gove and his cohorts dreamed up academies.

Well, running a health service takes a lot of money. So you sell it off for an easy buck. The private companies then charge the government Loadsamoney to provide the service AND satisfy their shareholders etc. As it's no longer your govornment, it's no longer your problem..... .

I've always felt well looked after in the NHS and I work for the NHS.
I think it is a fabulous concept made almost impossible by many factors (more expensive technology/drugs, ageing population with much more complex health needs, expectations to name but a few), but I don't see how providing healthcare for ALL (not just those who can afford insurance or who are rich enough to self-fund like in the STates) should ever be in private hands.

I reckon it's a combination of cost and hoping that private companies will invest in services for profit.

Except, excluding a few areas, I reckon there is no profit to be made. Just a way of the government paying a set amount for healthcare and expecting the impossible, then whoever is in government can blame the private company for delays / not providing the service required rather than having to explain it themselves.

I personally think it will be a disaster - you only have to look at social care agencies to see the effect of privatising social care.

What actually is the business process here though?

I was talking to an LA about letters of this sort. The LA is responsible for inviting people to screening tests but isn't allowed to know the medical facts according to which people are selected. So it composes the letter and sets down the criteria as to who should be invited, and sends that data to the Health Board, which finds the patients who fit these criteria and sends the letter. So the LA writes the letter and decides who should get it but never finds out the identities of the recipients.

Serco and the other one to watch out for is LandSecurities, they have their fingers in many different pies.

I work for Servo.

It stands for Service Company - we really do do everything

If it makes you feel any better I have to have national security clearance, a lot of us do, the secrets of your fanjo are safe with me.

Serco won a contract in a particular area of the country approx 2 years ago, to run the medical registration and screening administration services for that area. So as I understand it Serco still use the staff who ran the services before in pretty much the same offices, but it is Serco who runs it. And will be attempting to make a profit from it.

I would much prefer it to still be clearly NHS.
Serco are extending their reach. Another poster mentioned the partnership with GSTS - runs pathology at Guys and Bedford. Lots of staff have left.

And more recently this bid for a whole swath of services.

How odd, I also used to have a lot of dealings with Land Securities (in a different job, in a completely different capacity) they were working with The Crown Estate to buy and build shopping centres.

Definitely fingers in pies all over the place there.

Obviously I trust the innermost secrets of my fanjo to MNetters over Serco

So, making a list of Creepy Unelected Large Organisations (CULOs) that we know exist:

Serco
Servo
Virgin
Land Securities

... any more?

Ironically our pension funds are presumable invested in their companies as well, I imagine.

As well as Serco, there's the much maligned G4S, Capita who were recently selected as preferred bidder (over both G4S and BT who were also bidding) to run most of the services at LB of Barnet council. Barnet is effectively run by Capita now.

There are others -Unison, unsurprisingly, has a comprehensive list.

My heart sinks every time I see one of these companies logo paired up next to the logo of a public service organisation.

As an aside, there isn't any Servo - I think Tallalime just made a typo and meant Serco.