A leading private health company is under investigation for allegedly providing an unsafe out-of-hours GP service. The same company runs a range of outsourced services and is poised to win much of the new wave of NHS outsourcing contracts but these claims that it manipulated results where it failed to meet targets would put a huge dent to its image.

There are serious allegations against the company regarding its £7.5 million a year out-of-hours service in Cornwall. It includes claims that it fudged with the data at its telephone help lines by allowing queues of up to 90 patients at a time. These allegations are very serious in nature and an investigation has also been issued in that matter by the officials from the Care Quality Commission.

A spokesman at the CQC said that there had been some concerns that were raised by whistleblowers regarding irregularities at Cornwall. He added, “What we did was to go in and priorities it for an early inspection so there was an unannounced visit to the premises”. In due course, an investigation has been announced and the process of gathering evidence would continue.

But the spokesman of Serko claimed that there were no irregularities, stating that its GP out-of-hours service in Cornwall had been found to be one of the best performing such contracts in the UK.