Several locum doctors have withheld their services from Welsh practices associated with GP management company eHarley Street, collectively owed around £250k in unpaid wages. An established doctor claimed that supply shortages and low staffing levels at such facilities supported by the company were “potentially catastrophic”. Hygiene concerns have been reported to health authorities. All nine of eHarley Street’s Welsh practices are in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board region, plus one in Cardiff. The company strenuously denied the allegations.
GPs contracted to run the surgeries said they had confronted financial “challenges”. Some locum payments have allegedly been delayed but they will be paid, ensured the GPs. Locums were refusing work for fear of non-payment, according to one doctor. One doctor claimed patients are not receiving the services they need, difficulties have been experienced obtaining basic medical supplies, and the prescription service is sorely lacking.
The Wales Member of the Senedd (MS) for Plaid Cymru, Heledd Fychan, argued that the practices had been bought by “large firms” and paid out dividends to private investors, something he said “shows the damaging trend of profits being taken out of the health system into private pockets, making the provision vulnerable”. EHarley Street’s website claims its “practice management solutions” liberate GPs from managerial concerns.
EHarley Street’s solicitors insist the company “does not hold any GMS contracts…in Wales”, but that three partners have “several contracts” for surgeries which “may have been the subject of the complaints outlined”. The firm said locum payments had been delayed but would be paid in full, and the surgeries had “faced similar challenges” to those of other GP practices. The company’s partners claimed “many of the allegations” came from “two disgruntled employees, without objective basis or corroboration”. Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said it was “aware of concerns”
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