Serco to lose out-of-hours GP services and hospital management contracts

Outsourcing firm agrees to early termination of NHS Cornwall contract and will pull out of large hospital management

The Serco office in Truro, Cornwall. The company is to lose its contract to manage out-of-hours GP services for NHS Kernow. Photograph: Jim Wileman

Serco has agreed to the early termination of its contract for out-of-hours GP services in Cornwall after the company left the county short of doctors.

The embattled outsourcing company also said it would stop running Braintree hospital in Essex as it pulls out of managing GP services and large hospitals. The decision follows a review of Serco's healthcare operations.

On Thursday the company, along with G4S, was forced to hand over its electronic tagging contracts to rival Capita following fraud allegations over the way they charged the government.

Serco said the Cornwall and Braintree contracts and a loss-making agreement to provide community healthcare in Suffolk would cost it £17m in one-off charges.

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