A private doctor has managed to rake in £2.5million in one week by profiteering from thousands of people across Britain who are deeply concerned to find out whether they have contracted the coronavirus.
Dr Mark Ali, a 56-year-old cardiologist, has sold more than 6,600 coronavirus test kits for £375 each to people who fear they have the illness, more than three times what his supplier charged the public for the exact same tests.
He offers the tests through his company, Private Harley Street Clinic Limited, which, despite its name, is based at his flat in north London miles from the renowned medical street.
The business hired temporary agency staff in the past few days to man the phones while the demand for the service was so high.
A report from the Sunday Times puts the estimated profits from the £2.5million in revenue deriving from the test payments at around £1.7million.
The kits are sold at an inflated mark up with the “clinic” acting as a marketing front for the coronavirus test operation.
The shadow health secretary John Ashworth accused Ali of exploiting peoples fears over the apparent lack of testing around the country, he said: “This is an unprecedented public health crisis.
“People will be disgusted at profiteering behaviour like this.
“It has to be a national priority to ramp up testing, especially for our NHS staff, and the government must stamp out this exploitative action.”
Ali’s company, The Private Harley Street Clinic Limited was incorporated in 2017 shortly after Ali’s two previous companies with near-identical names were struck off by Companies House for failing to file the accounts.
The new company was also facing being struck off if it did not provide accounts, however, it did last summer and these reviled the company had total net assets of £200.
Sales of the tests begin around eight days ago but allegedly really started to take off after Ali gave an interview to the Telegraph in that he claims celebrities and nobility and large business had been flocking to buy the virus tests “produced by” his Harley Street Clinic.
As of Thursday, it was also revealed that none of Ali’s customers had received their test results despite his website initially claiming that this would only take a “maximum 3-day turnaround”. He has stopped taking money for the tests as the backlog is cleared.
Dr Mark Ali claimed that the price increase for the service was because customers who tested positive would also receive medical advice, however, Randox has said they are able to test clients for £120 and provide advice for those who test positive at no extra cost.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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