19 April 2023 , 17:10
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The wife of a Tory health minister works for a private firm that has been handed NHS contracts, it has been revealed.
Neil O’Brien’s spouse is GP engagement lead for Circle Health Group, which operates taxpayer-funded services.
Circle Health was the first private firm to take over an NHS hospital.
It has 54 private hospitals across the UK and advertises that NHS patients can request to have their operations at its sites.
“NHS England Patients can be treated at Circle Health Group offering specialised hospitals with experienced consultant surgeons,” it states on its website.
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“If you choose to have your NHS treatment at one of our hospitals in England, all the costs will be covered by the NHS.”
Circle Health Group has contracts to perform operations on NHS patients at its hospitals (Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)Mr O’Brien is the Minister for Primary Care in the Department of Health and Social Care. He was appointed to the role last September after previously being a Levelling Up minister.
His wife’s role with the private healthcare firm was revealed on the list of ministers' interests published today.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Jemma O’Brien has worked for Circle Health in various roles since 2015.
Dr Paul Manning, the Chief Medical Officer at Circle Health, was appointed to the Government’s taskforce on hospital backlogs in December.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay met with the firm in the same month to discuss “elective recovery”.
The investments of Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty have been kept secret (PA)The Department of Health and Social Care declined to comment.
The declaration about Mr O'Brien's wife's job came as Mr Sunak has been accused of a “complete lack of transparency” over his own wife's investments.
The list of interests did not include details of the shareholdings owned by his heiress wife, Akshata Murty.
Under the section for relevant interests held by a spouse or close relative, Mr Sunak's entry included his wife's venture capital company Catamaran Ventures and unnamed "direct shareholdings".
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A footnote adds that these include her "minority shareholding" in Koru Kids, but no details were given for any of her other shareholdings.
Farcically, the list did not include her £468million stake in Infosys, the Indian IT firm founded by her billionaire father.
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