FURIOUS health chiefs say they have concerns about new debts saddled to a private company running doctors’ surgeries as they weigh up whether to terminate a host of the firm’s National Health Service contracts following a takeover.

The North Central London Integrated Care Board (NCL) held an “extraordinary” meeting on Tuesday to decide whether to sever ties with AT Medics after what it has called a “grave” breach of contract and trust.

AT Medics, which has an NHS contract to run The Randolph Surgery in Maida Vale, did not inform the NHS about a “change in control” higher up its company food chain in December.

High-ranking NCL directors said this failure meant its officers did not have a chance to fully vet the new company, as it is contractually obliged to do, before authorising any deal of this kind.

NCL’s top finance director Sarah Rothenberg told the meeting that health chiefs had initially entered into talks with the company “in good faith” and had started “a due diligence” investigation “…only to find it was a sham process and waste of taxpayer money”.

She said that there had been lengthy discussions about getting permission for the change in control before they discovered it had already been carried out – without their consent – on December 28.

Ms Rothenberg said: “The lack of transparency, it also expands further into other areas. Following their purchase, the new owners have restructured their debt and put a debt against their organisation [AT Medics]. We have asked for details for this debt… And we haven’t had a response yet.

“In terms of making a decision about which route we go down, we need to be very cognisant of their behaviour when we come to making a decision.”

The Randolph Surgery is run by a private company thanks to privatisation legislation brought in by New Labour more than 20 years ago.

The contract holder, AT Medics, in 2020 merged with a company called Operose Health, which was ultimately owned by the Centene Corporation, the biggest health insurance giant in the United States.

Last December Centene sold off all its NHS contracts to a buyer, T20 Pioneer Midco Ltd, that is part of the HCRC Group, formerly Richard Branson’s Virgin Care.

It meant a new company became responsible for a surgery in Westminster without the NHS realising and without any scrutiny required to give the all-clear.

The documents show how its current probe has revealed details of a “refinancing deal” that has meant four surgeries in Camden were now “subject to additional potential liabilities following the change in control”.

Vanessa Piper, a director of primary care who is heading up the investigation at NCL, said, to the company’s credit it had been “engaging with us as a provider”, and added: “They have been responding.

“In terms of a relationship on the ground, we don’t have any concerns from a contracting basis. Obviously it’s unfortunate serious breaches have occurred.”

After the meeting, a spokesperson for Operose Health said: “Under our ownership, and following our debt-reduction exercise, the organisation has less than one-third of the debt that it had with the previous US-based owners.

“We are a fully UK-owned, managed and tax-paying service, overseen by NHS England which consistently results in positive confirmation by the NHS of our good standing and stability.

“We have cooperated fully with all our ICBs through the change of control process and provided all evidence requested; we will continue to fully participate and engage.

“Our teams continue to focus on delivering high quality services to patients, further improving staffing and enabling our communities to access primary care when they need it.”