Richard Branson’s healthcare firm has pocketed £2million of public money by suing the NHS.
Virgin Care took High Court action after losing out on an £82million contract to provide children’s medical services in Surrey.
The work was handed to a rival group of in-house NHS providers and a social enterprise firm last year. Virgin Care claimed there were ‘serious flaws in the procurement process’ and secured an out-of-court settlement in November.
Newly-released accounts show that six clinical commissioning groups and NHS England paid Virgin Care £1.565million. Surrey County Council handed over another £440,000 and at least £243,000 more was diverted from frontline NHS services to cover legal fees.
Virgin Care won £1billion of NHS contracts in 2016/17 as £3.1billion of health services were privatised.
Read more in the Daily Mail.
