THE plan to hand medical practices with hundreds of thousands of patients to a scandal-ridden US health privateer is to be challenged in court.

North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), a government body that awards contracts for NHS provision, is handing eight GP practices with 375,000 patients to US health insurance firm Centene.

The company and its web of subsidiaries have a track record of falsely claiming taxpayers’ income and of failing to provide adequate health services to patients in the United States.