Serco becomes latest firm to face music
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Printable
EmailOctopus-like outsourcing firm Serco became the latest profiteering outfit caught out failing to deliver on its promises today.
Health regulators the Care Quality Commission hit out at the company's dire record at providing out-of-hours GP services in Cornwall.
Inspectors found that Serco had failed to splash out on enough doctors to cope with demand and that some of its employees had been forced to work double shifts as a result.
This meant that on one weekend some GPs were seeing patients after working 13 hours straight.
And a quarter of staff had not completed mandatory training.
The commission has given the firm a 14-day deadline to improve following the rock-bottom report, which comes hot on the heels of the multimillion-pound G4S Olympic scandal.
Serco, which hoovered up £4.6 billion of public-sector contracts last year, said it had improved its operations since the inspectors' visit.
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