The meeting provides the first proof that private companies are being primed to take a key role in Labourís health reforms.

A network of Virgin health centres across England would build on the Branson empire of airlines, trains and mobile phones.

He believes aspects of the NHS ìcould be better runî by the private sector but stressed the company had to see ìa return on the moneyî.

Campaigners battling to keep the NHS out of the hands of profit-making companies have long warned that Labourís controversial plans for 150 polyclinics will open the doors to the private sector.

Professor Wendy Savage, of Keep Our NHS Public, said the minutes of the meeting confirmed their worst fears. ìPrivate companies are not suitable to run healthcare,î she said. ìGrocers should not be running the NHS.

ìThe Government keeps on peddling this myth that it does not matter who provides the service so long as it is free at the point of delivery but it does matter. The primary duty of the private sector is to shareholders, not to the patients.î

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, negotiator for the BMAís GP committee, said: ìWhat we are seeing is not a voluntary process, itís an ideological imposition of one model. The private sector will run this as a business. Their idea of success is the share price, not how the patients will feel about them.î

The revelations put Gordon Brown on a collision course with Britainís biggest public sector union, Unison, which has called for an end to creeping privatisation in the NHS.

They will also provoke a grassroots backlash among Labour activists who want to wring left-wing concessions from the leadership in a crunch meeting on Friday to shape Labourís next manifesto.

Mark Atkinson, director of service improvement for Camden Primary Care Trust, said proposals were at an early stage and would go out to public consultation before any†

decisions were made.

He added: ìIt was an informal meeting. We have been meeting with a number of providers to discuss what is happening. It is to understand how the market is changing.

ìIt is too early to say whether we would go to external procurement but we have to have an understanding of what the external market has to offer.î

Mr Atkinson said the surgeries earmarked for closure were all close to the hospital, in townhouses or basements which made access for the elderly and disabled difficult.

The new polyclinic would treat all walk-in cases to UCHís casualty department. ìThe nub of the proposal is if you turn up to A & E walking there would be an assumption you would be a primary care patient unless proved otherwise by triage,î Mr Atkinson said.

Virgin Healthcare said the company had no plans to bid for Camdenís proposal.

Doctors in the area are fearful that patients could be poached by the new super-surgery. Dr Stephen Amiel, chairman of Camden and Islington Local Medical Committees, warned that placing a polyclinic ìin a hospital- type environmentî could prove ìintimidatingî for patients.

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley also expressed concerns about the scheme.

ìPushing GPs into large polyclinics should not happen without their agreement and genuine consultation with patients,î he said.