A bill to block private companies taking over GP surgeries is being proposed in the Scottish Parliament.
Carolyn Leckie, Scottish Socialist MSP, has begun a formal consultation on legal changes which would stop firms with shareholders from competing to run practices.
Earlier this year Serco, the company that runs Kilmarnock jail, bid to manage a surgery in Harthill, Lanarkshire, when the practice there was dissolved after a row between the two GP partners. If successful, it would have become the first private company to run a Scottish NHS practice.
After a public backlash, Dr Louise Eccles, one of the original GPs, and Dr Alan Grant won the contract.
"A company limited by shares legally has to put the interests of shareholders first. That relegates patients to second place," Ms Leckie said.
Her bill proposes the deletion of a section of the Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2004 that allows a health board to enter into a general medical services contract with a company limited by shares.
The consultation will run until July.
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