Circle (healthcare partnership)

Circle is a healthcare company based in Britain, co-founded in 2004 by ex-investment banker Ali Parsa and Consultant Ophthalmologist Massoud Fouladi. It has independent hospitals near Bath and Reading, and an NHS Treatment Centre in Nottingham. In November 2011, it was awarded a contract to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital as a National Health Service (NHS) hospital franchised to an independent provider, and began the contract in February 2012. Circle's independent hospitals, CircleReading and CircleBath, also provide NHS care under the NHS Choose and Book scheme. Since the Health and Social Care Act 2012 came into force in April 2013 Circle has been the biggest private sector winner from the 195 contracts awarded with two contracts together worth £285.9m.

Circle was founded in 2004. Its publicity suggested it followed a governance model of John Lewis and the Toyota Manufacturing System, and it refers to itself as a "partnership". In fact, it has little effective voice for workers, and Circle Health Ltd is a limited liability company, incorporated under UK company law. Its private shareholders control the corporation. The flattened organisational structure is said to allow quality and efficiency to remain high, through the creation of ‘clinical units’. Speaking at Hinchingbrooke hospital, Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister, described the Circle model as ‘a third option which goes beyond the monopoly of state provision or the private sector’.

Its claims to be a “John Lewis style social enterprise.” have been challenged by Prof Martin McKee who pointed out that "Staff shares amount to only 49% of the total number of shares, and the staff’s decision making powers are far less than even this suggests". The Guardian reported that it was funded by about £120m of investment from highly astute and profit-driven venture capital and hedge funds, and controlled by Circle Holdings, which became a publicly listed company following its flotation on Aim on 17 June 2011. Almost 95% of the shares remained in the hands of six investors. The company's plans were ambitious, encompassing the possibility of running 30 NHS trusts in time, and the shares peaked at £2.

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