NHS patient records have been placed under the control of a US private equity firm in a £300 million deal that has sparked alarm from doctors and campaigners.

They called for greater public scrutiny over the transfer of millions of NHS patient records to investment firm TPG as part of it buying Optum UK — the healthcare technology business behind the electronic patient record system used by most GP practices in England.

A spokesperson for the campaign group Doctors’ Association UK said: “Private equity now owns the plumbing of English general practice. 

“The GP records of more than half the country sit on a system controlled by a firm whose business model is returns for investors, not care for patients, and the public found out after the fact.

“We have been here before with Palantir. The difference is that this time the buyer is a private equity giant whose overseas hospitals stand accused of pushing patients into debt.

“We want the government to set out what safeguards exist, what happens to the data if TPG later sells the asset, and why none of this was put to Parliament.”

Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan warned that such deals leave sensitive NHS data “dangerously exposed” as she called on the government to “start backing British tech instead.”

The former Oxfam health policy lead Anna Marriott added that the deal should “ring major alarm bells” due to TPG’s “highly controversial track record in healthcare internationally.”

Earlier this year, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) suggested hospitals linked to the firm in Africa had pushed patients into poverty through excessive medical bills.

A spokesperson for TPG said that it strongly disagreed “with the facts and characterisation of the allegations in the ICIJ’s report.”

TPG acquired Optum UK from the New York-listed healthcare corporation UnitedHealth Group. The business includes EMIS, whose software is used by more than half of GP practices in England.

EMIS said that the acquisition “was reviewed and approved by the government through the applicable channels in accordance with the National Security and Investment Act 2021.”

TPG said: “Assertions that TPG could in any way access, control, maintain, or utilise NHS patient records are entirely false.”

Keep Our NHS Public lead Dr Tony O’Sullivan said: “This is a perfect storm where key areas of the NHS are being outsourced to private corporations, putting strategic control of our NHS into the hands of US major tech and hedge funds.

The Department of Health and Social Care did not provide a comment.